Star Wars: The Force Wills
by keiranhalcyon2010
Summary: When we think of the recent history of the galaxy, we think of names like Palpatine, Dooku, Yoda, Skywalker - they stood like titans over the events that unfolded. I also played my part doing the best I could. Can't say if it was for the better or the worse - only time will tell I suppose as the Force wills. [SI/AU]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Getting back to a bit of writing and the Star Wars bug bit me. Especially since I was really hoping to be playing SW: BF2 at this time - but the dark side is strong with EA, so now I'm turning to this to tide me over until The Last Jedi hits theaters. This story is going to address some weaknesses, especially from the military sci-fi perspective, that was present in the TCW and some parts of how characters used the Force or DIDN'T use the Force and go with the flow from there. Star Wars is property of Disney, I wish it was mine.**

 **Thanks to AJW for beta-ing.**

 **Chapter 1**

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker rushed towards the barricade that the clone troopers had set up on of wide sweeping boulevards of the capital city of Christophsis, and regarded the enemy lines for a moment, just in time for the angry whines of blaster fire to fill the air. The troopers, in their now thoroughly dirtied and stained armor, rushed to their battle positions, shouting encouragements to one another, and returning fire. In the distance, awkwardly walking into view on four legs, the top heavy spherical spider droid tanks, added their heavy fire into the mix. He sensed his former master approaching the battle line.

"They're back," Anakin commented rather unnecessarily.

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi regarded his old student and shook his head as he also saw the scope of the droid battalion that was heading towards them, "I told you our victory seemed too easy. We never should've have sent the ship back for supplies."

Anakin bristled at the implied criticism all too common with his old master, "it wasn't _my_ idea to send the ship back."

Obi Wan pulled the lightsaber from his belt while keying the integrated com on his plasteel armor gauntlet. "All squads, another wave incoming, we need everyone on the line. Main artillery, open fire as you bear."

"Rex," Anakin gestured to the nearby clone captain, distinctive in his blue painted armor, "you and your men with me."

"Yes sir."

Battle was swiftly joined in the urban jungle of the city, and tidal waves of blaster bolts were traded back and forth between Republic clones and mechanised Separatist droid troops. The wide boulevards allowed the fearless droids to march in column and concentrate a hellish amount of firepower. The clones hunkered behind whatever cover could be generated via controlled demolition of certain buildings and skyscrapers, and had no trouble finding their targets, but the droid numbers were overwhelming. The droid's targeting was also proving to have markedly been upgraded. Anakin spotted quite a number of dead clones laying sprawled behind their cover, the victims of headshots.

Thunder seemed to echo through the air and buildings at this point, and the bright white heavy proton artillery bolts arced overhead to land amongst the advancing droids. The resulting devastation saw dozens of battle droids being rent to pieces from the explosions and in some cases reduced to utter molten slag on the battlefield from direct hits.

The Separatist line continued to advance.

Anakin waited for the spider droids to pass by their hideout on the roof of a skyscraper, and turned to Rex. "Follow me."

With no hesitation he jumped, embracing the Force, and unfurled his will above him on the air itself to slow his fall. He also pulled the gathering energy of his fall and also cast it away into the Force. It barely required any thought to adjust his trajectory as well to compensate for the droid's own movement and he landed on the droid perfectly. His lightsaber ignited in his right hand with its characteristic snap-hiss and already he was was forced to start spinning and twirling his blade to deflect the blaster shots from the neighboring spider droids.

Rex and his squad had followed down at a much more sedate and less spectacular pace with booster packs attached to their backs, allowing them a controlled fall and landed among the legs of the spider droids. They immediately concentrated their fire on the closest tank, aiming as best as they could for sensor clusters and attaching explosives to the spindly legs, whilst staying in the blind spots of the anti-infantry lasers mounted on top.

Anakin sliced off the laser on his current ride, and managed the angles of his blaster bolt deflections to utterly disable the spider droid Rex's squad was working on. The next few bolts sent his way were very awkward angles, and in a snap instinctual decision, he redirected them to hit the droid tank he was standing on.

He had already jumped away into a Force assisted leap before the explosion could threaten him, landing on another spider droid's long heavy blaster barrel. Greater volumes of fire was sent his way as more and more of the droids recognized him as a primary threat - it just gave him more ammunition and more angles to work from. He was especially satisfied when he managed a deflection right back into the droid tank who had shot at him - sending the bolt to utterly slag the barrel and turret of the offending tank.

Rex and his squad brought that one down a moment later with a few very well timed sticky grenades.

He slid down the upper sphere of his current ride, stabbing his lightsaber deep into the tank, carving a molten line in the armor and no doubt wrecking the internals. He landed briefly on the long blaster barrel as the tank started to collapse, Force jumping onto the last spider droid, this time arching right past its legs. His lightsaber arced and slashed straight through. The droid tank collapsed and he timed his next jump to land back onto the ground amongst the rear-guard of B1 battle droids and their larger B2 super-battle droid counterparts. They didn't even realize as yet that he was among them - given how focused they were on blasting the Republic line - before they were sliced and diced into pieces.

It was at this point that the Republic clone troopers counter-attacked with Obi-Wan, breaking from cover and pushing their own line forward, as Anakin and Rex's squad continued their assault from behind.

Soon enough the entire wave of Separatist droids were scrap and debris littering the streets. It was far from the end though, as Anakin and Obi-Wan consolidated and organized the new line of defense, while already another fresh wave of droids could be seen approaching in the distance.

Anakin shook his head as he saw the casualties among the clone troopers also sprawled among the wrecked droids, "We're going to need reinforcements." His lightsaber flashed up and down as the first ranging shots from the fresh enemy wave started reaching them, he also spied the dreaded forms of Separatist Armored Assault Tanks in the rear ranks of that wave.

"We haven't been able to get through to the Admiral," Obi-Wan's shouted over the din of battle, in contrast to his old Padawan he was far more economical and precise in his blade work. He shifted to only using the blade one handed as he talked into his com. "Captain, focus your artillery fire on the front ranks of the AATs, create a blockade with the wreckage and buy us time, we'll handle the rest."

" _Yes sir."_

The proton projectiles arced overhead and this time burst among the AATs. The initial salvo's results were not as accurate as Obi-Wan hoped but soon enough there was a nice blockage in wide boulevard of smouldering, wrecked tanks that neatly prevented the mid and rear tanks from advancing at all.

This obstruction was clearly enough for the Separatist commander, as while they hardly cared at all for how many droids were destroyed achieving their objectives, even they had logistical issues, a limited inventory and couldn't grind their assets into the teeth of the potent Republic defenses forever.

The B1 and 2s in front of the tanks stopped and turned around in perfect synchronization and started a retreat. The Republic clones weren't content to let them go uncontested and poured fire into the backs of the retreating droids.

A loud sonic boom and the hiss of repulsorlifts heralded the arrival of a YT-class cargo shuttle that roared into view from overhead. The clones, seeing it, started to cheer as the shuttle descended expertly among the high buildings heading straight for the rear landing zones.

"Looks like help has arrived."

* * *

Obi-wan and Anakin arrived at the landing pad after having organized the shifting of their defenses forward to the new front line. The shuttle with its wings in the upward landing configuration was a bustle of activity as troopers hurried in and out carrying crates of supplies and ammunition.

"Ah, the cruiser must be back," Obi-wan noted with satisfaction.

"Which means we'll be able to get our reinforcements."

"Oh, then it looks like our problems are solved."

"Fresh troops, new supplies… and perhaps they brought my new Padawan with them."

Anakin couldn't help but feel rather apprehensive at that last part, "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring a Padawan learner into all this?"

"I spoke to Master Yoda about it," Obi-wan deflected, "you should put in a request for one. You'd make a good teacher."

Anakin laughed incredulously at his former master, "No thanks."

"Anakin," his former master's voice immediately shifting into the well practiced lecturing tone, "teaching is a privilege, and it's part of a Jedi Knight's responsibility to train the next generation."

They stopped near the shuttle's open cargo doors, "a Padawan would just slow me down..."

"Greetings, Masters."

The young female voice echoed from the interior of the shuttle, before a large supply crate - the kind that normally required specialized repulsorlifts and crane droids - came floating out seemingly by itself. Obi-wan felt the telekinesis use and raised an intrigued eyebrow while reflexively stroking his beard, before the Padawan herself came into view.

She was an orange skinned Togruta and rather more modest white facial patterning tattoos than was custom, though given her age it was to be expected, her head was framed with the characteristic montrals and lekku in a white and blue pattern, which extended down to just below her collar - giving a rough indication of her fifteen standard years of age. That was where convention ended though. She wore a suit with plasteel armor panels integrated to cover her torso, arms, and legs, with a blocky utility belt clasped around her waist and her feet were adorned with armored all terrain boots that reached up to her calves - all of it patterned in a grey-white fractal pattern camouflage. The only reason she looked like a Jedi at all and not a new type of volunteer trooper, was the two lightsabers strapped to holsters on her upper legs, and the Jedi symbols on her shoulder pauldrons.

"And, uh, who are you supposed to be?"

"Padawan Ahsoka Tano," she bowed her head slightly at them both. Obi-wan was impressed as she didn't seem to be needing any mnemonic gestures to keep the crate moving and talk to them at the same time. "Master Yoda sent me to hand deliver new orders given the interstellar communication problems we're having with Christophsis at the moment."

The crate settled down onto the ground.

"And those orders are?"

"You are both to leave the Christophsis system immediately and contact the Council for new orders, there's an emergency."

"Whoah," Anakin held up his hands, "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in a bit of an emergency ourselves."

"Yes, which is why I arrived in a cargo shuttle with supplies, instead of just a passenger transport - and you can relay a signal via the Cruiser in orbit. Though you'd better hurry, the Seppies had five cruisers inbound on an intercept when I left. Admiral Yularen won't be able to maintain his position."

Anakin and Obi-wan looked at each other and rushed towards the com station.

* * *

It was a struggle to remain cool and collected after all the time I had worked in preparation for this moment. After thirteen years, since I could form coherent thoughts again and had regained self-awareness on Kiros, twelve years of training myself and at the Jedi Temple - here I was, standing barely two feet from Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi at a holotable. There was still a small part of me was as giddy as a fangirl, while another part just wanted to whip out my lightsabers and do the galaxy a huge favor by lobbing the _Chosen One_ 's head off. Thankfully, that impulse was strangled by practicality, common sense and a large amount of self-preservation. There was also the nagging thought that I was crazy, and utterly frakked to be here at all and should've just stolen the shuttle and disappeared into the far outer rim or the Unknown regions.

The holo-table lit up and the face of 'Jango Fett' appeared, clad in the dark gray naval uniform of the Grand Army of the Republic.

"Greetings Lieutenant," Obi-wan nodded, "I know you're busy up there, but we need our holo signal relayed to the Jedi Temple and Master Yoda urgently."

"Yes, at once, General Kenobi, stand by."

The clone officer vanished and was replaced by the computer flashing the Aurebesh equivalent of ' _On hold_ ' and a rather annoying periodic beeping. It thankfully ended after ten seconds when the holotable lit up with the diminutive form of Master Yoda.

"Master Kenobi. Glad Ahsoka found you, I am."

"Master Yoda, we are trapped here," Obi-wan reported grimly, "and vastly outnumbered. We are in no position to go anywhere or do anything. Our support ships have all been destroyed."

"Send reinforcements to… you…" the image abruptly began to flicker and destabilize, "we...will…"

"Master Yoda…!"

The Lieutenant's face abruptly reappeared, "I'm sorry, General. We lost the transmission, the Seps jamming has found our frequencies as well, and this battle damage isn't helping. We have to leave orbit, more enemy ships have just arrived… we'll get back to you as soon as we can."

The holo flickered and vanished.

"Well, I guess we'll have to hold out a little longer," Anakin commented wryly.

Obi-wan nodded, "the supplies our new Padawan brought should help us last at least until they get back, if all goes well. Speaking of, proper introductions are in order, I am Obi-Wan Kenobi your assigned Master, and this is Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker."

"I think... there's been a miscommunication somewhere with you Master Kenobi… I was assigned to Master Skywalker."

"What?!" Skywalker looked like I had just pointed a gun at him, "oh no, no, there must be some kind of mistake." He pointed a rather childish accusative finger at Obi-wan, "he's the one that wanted a Padawan."

"Master Yoda was very specific. I am to report to Knight Anakin Skywalker, and he is to supervise my further Jedi training," I explained. _God help me_ , I thought.

Obi-wan just gave his old student a teasing smile in response.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Anakin shook his head, "I never put my name down on the list…"

Obi-wan raised his hands to stop the impending argument, "we'll have to sort this out later. It won't be long until the enemy commander devises a way to counter our artillery."

Anakin sighed and began walking away, "I'll join Rex at the lookout post."

Obi-wan nodded, "certainly, but you'd better take her with you."

Anakin looked back at me, then Obi-wan before reluctantly making a come-hither gesture that I was to follow him. I wasn't exactly thrilled either. When Yoda had come to me in the Temple with the assignment I was very tempted to ask the little green muppet if he'd been smoking one too many. I had been going along fine in Temple without any form of official 'Master' - he knew that very well. And while the normal fate of any Padawan that wasn't selected was to usually go into the various service corps - with the talents I had developed through sheer hard work, determination, and copious amounts of cheating via knowledge from my previous life - Yoda would sooner eat his gimer stick before he would let me go into obscurity.

And so the wheels of fate and 'canon' wouldn't seem to be denied on this one.

* * *

The walk to the lookout post was rather awkward. I really wasn't one for small talk, no matter how much it was a general lubricant to social situations. So I contented myself by examining the lines of defense the clones were setting up in the streets, and while more than adequate by even my armchair general standards, the weapons mix the clones had were far from ideal. Not to mention the crap ergonomic design I remembered all weapons in the era suffered from, and no matter how you sliced it - street fighting in 'modern warfare' was always a nasty business.

After braving a few very rickety Antigrav elevators, we were on the the forward lookout post on the roof a few blocks from the city centre, where Captain Rex and his squad were all crouched with Macro-binoculars and scanning the distant streets in the direction of the enemy lines.

"What's the status Rex?"

"Quiet for now, sir. But they're most assuredly gearing up for another assault." I felt the clone captain's appraising gaze, "who's the youngling?"

"I'm his Padawan, Captain Rex" I corrected and jerked a thumb at Anakin. "My name's Ahsoka Tano."

Rex gave Anakin a confused look, "Sir, I thought you'd said you'd never take a padawan."

"There's been a mixup, the youngling isn't with me."

I flicked my silka bead string out from behind my montrals, the Padawan braid for hairless species of Jedi. "Pa-da-wan. Last I checked, Yoda was Grandmaster of the Order, and he assigned me to you. Order given, end of story, unless you want to resign, _Master?_ "

"She's got you there, sir." Rex smirked his eyes turned to me again, "nice armor, by the way."

"Thank you Captain, custom, designed it myself. Fabricator droids did the rest."

"Looks like you prioritized flexibility, not surprising, given the crazy acrobatics and agility I've seen you Jedi pull off."

"Yes, speaking of which," Anakin gestured to the minimal 'armor' he wore around his shoulder and gauntlets. "I'm surprised Master Yoda let you wear that much armor at all."

"I just pointed out to him how many more Jedi would still be alive today had they ran out onto the Plains of Geonosis wearing something like this, instead of just their robes and the other casualties we've suffered so far in the war. We can trust the Force all we want, but we can't physically move our arms fast enough to deflect the large volumes of fire massed droids are capable of putting out, even with the Force buffing us. Not to mention explosions and shrapnel. Tradition has its place, but not in face of circumstances like these." I felt it unwise to share my general opinion of the Jedi not tossing the Ruusan Reformation down the toilet the instant they were organized as leaders of the Grand Army of the Republic.

"Buffing?"

"Strengthening, enhancing, much easier word to use," I explained.

"It does have a ring to it," Anakin agreed, "so _Padawan_ Tano, Captain Rex here will show and explain our fortifications and procedures to you."

"Uh… right," Rex was surprised at suddenly being put on the spot, "come along, Padawan."

I followed the clone officer obediently. _Nice Skywalker, just foist the burden that is me off on your subordinates_.

* * *

If there was one thing I could say about Rex, he utterly deserved his rank, and he just gave off this vibe that said 'I am a badass that knows a hundred ways to kill you, I know it, but I don't show it off.' Well, that was the gist of what I was sensing and seeing from him. I had a feeling I would learn way more about the business of soldiering from him, than anything Skywalker could teach me. Since the latter had only been doing this for the past three months versus Rex who had been doing it since he was decanted from the clone vat - which was six odd years ago.

Our tour through the fortifications moved past the giant artillery cannons, and this close they seemed utterly colossal in size. I half expected the darn things were actually ground side versions of the guns mounted on starships - the base on which they rested were alone five meters in height. For all that impressive firepower though… they had a weakness that Earth militaries had long ago learned to exploit, and in turn compensate for.

"So just how do clones get the different ranks?"

"Even though our genetics are essentially identical to each other," Rex explained, "our environments as we go through accelerated maturation are tailored to encourage the development of the traits needed in each clone. A select number, me included, were exposed to training and stimuli that encouraged leadership traits to emerge. If from there all goes well in testing and we demonstrate the required skills," he tapped the blue stripe on his armor that ran down his right arm.

"Huh, makes sense. And speaking of which, I just want to clarify command issues here, Captain. I understand that I'm just a Padawan here and technically speaking I outrank you and can give you orders, but off the record, it's nerfshit. I'm an amateur at best, you're the expert, but also understand that I have Force abilities and perceptions that will help keep your men alive."

Rex was visibly surprised, "I… understand, Padawan Tano. If you're going to have a permanent posting under General Skywalker, then I've no doubt you're going to be getting plenty of experience with us."

I felt the currents of the Force shift significantly and turned towards the distant enemy lines. "Looks like the Seppies are returning."

"What?"

Rex's question was answered when a shaft of energy stabbed into sky before abruptly blossoming into a red shifted petals that eventually formed the dome of a ground based deflector shield, that was steadily growing.

"That's going to make things damn near impossible."

* * *

The various clone commanders, Obi-wan, Anakin and myself were all assembled around the holotable in the command post, including a very familiar droid that was plugged into it - R2-D2. I had nearly completely forgotten that the snarkish tin can was actually Anakin's personal astromech during the Clone Wars. The droid was helping manipulate the holomap of the local terrain as Obi-wan delivered the briefing - using the scanners to indicate the extent of the Separatist shield in real-time.

"The shield generator is no doubt in the very centre of the circular area its encompassing, and they're extending it just ahead of their troops advance. They've also reinforced their AAT tank division with _Persuader_ class droid tanks."

I winced internally, the 'snail tanks' were droid tanks that came with an absolutely deadly armament, despite looking ridiculous and their nickname, their main side mounted armament of heavy repeating blasters, augmented with Ion cannon secondaries, and missile launchers.

"Our heavy cannons are going to be useless against that shield," Rex grumbled.

"As they get closer I suppose we could try to draw them into the buildings, that might level the playing field a bit," Obi-wan mused.

"Too bad they didn't design these types of heavy cannons to be mobile," I pointed out, "then we could've just kept moving them around, fight a battle of maneuver, but as hindsight is perfect, the obvious solution is to take the shield back out of the equation, and bring our artillery back into play."

"Easier said than done, padawan," Rex commented.

"Well, I for one," Anakin interjected, "agree with her. Someone has to get to that shield generator and destroy it."

"Right then," Obi-wan nodded, "maybe you two can tip-toe through the enemy lines and solve this particular problem together."

"Very well, Master Kenobi," I agreed.

"I'll decide what we do," Anakin pointedly said. I managed with great effort not to visibly roll my eyes in annoyance.

"If our main force engages them here, at this intersection," Obi-wan pointed it out, which R2 helpfully highlighted in red, "you two can penetrate their lines at this junction."

"They won't have much time either, the droids far outnumber us, so our ability to street fight is limited without the use of heavy cannons. They will march forward under the protection of their shield until they are right on top our artillery, and then they will simply blow them away."

"All our roles are understood?" Obi-wan prompted. Everyone nodded, "May the Force be with us."

* * *

I tightened the strap on the backpack full of thermal detonators and tried not to think about their explosive potential, "So, got any ideas of how to get through their lines, Master?"

Anakin briefly lowered his macrobinoculars from scrutinizing the enemy advance from a covert position we had found on the right flank of the advance - the upper floors of what had been a very nice apartment building. The steadily advancing shield was slowly filling the entire view of the distant horizon. Clearly the Separatists had made quite a few advances to the old Gungan designs with their industrial base behind it.

"From your tone at the briefing, I thought you were the one with the plan."

"Well yes, it just has a flaw I haven't figured out."

"Let's hear it then," he challenged.

"Flanking them would take too long, even at the speeds we could achieve, so we have to penetrate their tank line straight through the middle. Therefore, we need some way of remaining undetected to the myriad of sensors that droids use."

"And?"

"That's the part I was stuck at. Even if we could use some form of electronic counter measures to obscure our life signs, that still leaves their straightforward optic and thermal sensors." Or figure out the kinks in developing a Force Cloak technique that Jedi Shadows used - if they actually existed - which I could never confirm. Perhaps if I had another decade or so...

"Precisely, so unless you could convince them you were a droid as well…" he trailed off in thought.

The plan he came up with on the fly was on the surface utterly ridiculous. Anakin had found the lid of an old munition container that had been left behind by the droid army on its many back and forth battles with the Republic in the city, and we were using it Metal Gear Solid style, to hide under on the right side of the main boulevard, letting the advancing tank columns and droids walk right by us.

"Relax, Padawan, these munition containers are specifically made to contain potential accidental explosions, consequence of which, is that the alloy shielding makes us undetectable inside to droid sensors."

"Letting us blend into the background as scrap." The din of marching droids, rumbling tanks, and repulsors was thankfully also being muted to a degree, but I could sense and feel it acutely through my hands and knees.

"And their energy shield just passed over us," Anakin commented.

I dipped my senses into the Force and could feel the compact high density batteries in the droids that any Earth scientist would have gladly given an arm and a leg to study. The compact hypermatter fusion cores in the droid tanks were like tiny suns with glowing trees of energy radiating out in every direction. It took nearly three minutes for the entire column to pass, and Anakin gave it another minute before we both lifted the box onto our backs and began crawling forward.

It was slow going but we couldn't afford to discard the box until we were within sight of the generator at least. We crawled forward for nearly fifteen minutes then there was a problem…

"Master, I'm sensing a droideka in our path, and numerous subterranean droids of some kind buried around the shield generator."

"You can sense droids?".

" _Master_ , I don't need to lecture you of all people on the Force, do I?"

"Uh, no. You've learned Technometry?"

"Yes, it's not something that's really taught officially at the Temple, which in hindsight is a ridiculous oversight in a war against droids, but I just taught myself and figured it out after a year or so of trial and error - seemed a good idea."

"Okay, I know of a way to deal with the Droideka, the key is to keep deflecting its shots while we retreat as fast as possible, until it lowers its shield to roll after us, then abruptly stopping. Their deployment phase is when they're most vulnerable."

"Master, you're making a rancor out of a nerf. It's just one of them."

"What?"

I stood up abruptly, flipping the box off of both of us, my lightsabers leapt from their holsters into my hands and ignited into viridian green blades. They were there for potential attacks from more distant droids, but I simply gestured with the left blade, towards the droideka which was reacting to our sudden appearance on its sensors. It had its shield up, but that didn't matter to the ability I practiced with the most - telekinesis. Even if the shield could stop the esoteric energies of the Force, I'd still just lift it with my metaphorical mental hand via the shield itself.

The droideka was now suspended in mid-air utterly unable to bring its weapons to bear at all.

"That's great," Anakin said wryly, "and how did you figure to get past the shield that would deflect a lightsaber strike?"

I answered him via the droideka abruptly seeming to crumple as if it was in a trash compactor. Its shield flickered and vanished, as it crashed to the ground in sparking, twisted heap of now useless metal and broken parts, only fit for salvage.

He raised an eyebrow at me, "Not really a conventional Padawan at all, are you?"

 _You have no idea_ , I thought in amusement. I merely gave him a mild smile, shrugged, and approached the intersection where the generator had been set up.

The shield generator was surprisingly small considering the size of the shield it was still producing and enlarging. It was a flat disc like mobile structure that stood at four meters tall and ten meters in diameter, that was shooting a beam of crimson energy into the sky, looking oddly like Kylo Ren's lightsaber blade writ large…

There were no other droids visibly guarding the thing, which likely meant the Separatist commander had thrown his entire conventional inventory at the Republic lines.

"Padawan, how many droids do you sense buried around the emitter?"

"Eighteen droids, their size is about two and half meters tall, armed with typical heavy blasters, they have motion sensors sticking up out of the ground. So, Mine Droids if you will."

"And how would you solve the problem?" he inquired.

I shut off my lightsabers and pulled off the flap of the backpack full of explosives, eight thermal detonators zipped out under the direction of my will. I gave a mild gesture and they flew off, covering the distance to the shield generator. I felt Anakin use the Force and ten detonators zoomed out of the bag and follow mine.

I gave him a lopsided smile, as I attached the detonators to the structure and with minute applications of the Force, also pushed the buttons to arm them. I felt him do the same, but clearly he had a similar problem as most OP Manga characters; too much power, not enough control. Two of the detonators he attempted to manipulate finely enough to activate their buttons was crushed utterly.

"You need to get more practice, _Master_ ," I teased.

"Don't get snippy with me, padawan," he retorted with a scowl, but I could sense his heart wasn't in his expression. "There set, now please tell me you brought the remote detonator?"

I nodded and we retreated further to take cover behind a building.

The explosion was most satisfying and while I've always wanted to do the 'walk away from an explosion like a bad-ass', it was really a Hollywoodism. Even if you were out of the lethal range of any explosion, the shockwave would still knock you flat and potentially burst your eardrums. The blood red overhead sky of the shield swiftly winked out as its sustaining beam vanished, replacing it with the typical blue and cloudy white sky of any viable garden world. The explosion was also big enough to set off secondaries that neatly destroyed the Mine Droids as well.

"So I'm curious," Anakin looked up at the sky, "on your last Assessment before going into Padawan rank…" He was referring to a general Trials where the potential padawan was given all a manner of scenarios to work through. It was essentially the Jedi equivalent of an X-Men Danger room; using holograms, droids, and even a Master of the Mind Arts that essentially hijacked your senses to plunge you into any number of scenarios. "How many of those tests did you solve with Telekinesis?"

"All of them except two."

"Yeah, not much use for that in the Diplomacy test, I imagine and the lightsaber duel."

We heard the distant rumbling of the heavy cannons, as they wreaked their devastation on the droid army again.

"So I didn't get to see you fight with your lightsabers… what form do you use?"

"I formally practice Form Five: Djem So, with integration of Jar Kai due to the dual blades, and I'm adding my own twists and tricks along the way."

"Well, at least they matched our primary styles." Anakin abruptly pulled out his handheld holocom that had been vibrating in his belt, and a tiny full body image of Admiral Yularen appeared.

" _Attention, all Republic units, if you can hear me, we're through the blockade, the Separatist armada is in retreat. Your reinforcements should be landing imminently._ "

"Nice, come along, padawan, we've got more work to do."

"Oh, am I staying, Master? Not going to clear this mixup are we, by sending me back to the Temple?"

Anakin Skywalker stared at me thoughtfully after pocketing his holocom. "You're creative, unconventional, and I doubt you'd've have fit very well with Obi-wan. He's a bit of a…"

"Stick in the mud? A fossil?"

Anakin coughed to hide his laugh, "I was going to use the word, conservative, but yes. So, yes, you're my padawan. Now come along, _snips_."

 _Arrgh, was he really saddling me with that nickname_ …?

* * *

It wasn't long before the sky overhead was echoing with the droning engines of Low Altitude Assault Transports or LAATs. Skywalker signaled for a pickup, one of the craft homed in on our position and landed, the side deployment doors opened and Captain Rex looking thoroughly battle worn in his armor was on board with a few troopers.

"Great job, General Skywalker." Rex nodded at me in turn, "you too, kid."

Ten minutes later after navigating the bustling military air traffic we were touching down right next to a landed _Acclamator_ class Assault Destroyer that was disgorging troops, tanks and artillery from its cavernous holds. Obi-wan was there already, talking with the holographic projection of Master Yoda issuing from R2 and the pilot landed our LAAT within a few meters.

"Master Yoda, Master Obi-wan," Anakin greeted them respectfully, briefly bowing his head to the Grandmaster. I mirrored his action and met the probing wise eyes of Yoda…which was conveyed very well even through a hologram. I really wish there was a darn species name for Yoda's race. Whatever it was, it wasn't even listed in the regular Jedi Archives, nor even his homeworld or its name… I wonder if even those dicks at the Council of First Knowledge knew.

His eyes turned to Anakin, "Hmmm, trouble you have with your new padawan, I hear?"

"I was explaining the situation to Master Yoda," Obi-wan said.

"Really?"

"If not ready for a Padawan you are, then perhaps Obi-wan we can…"

"Just a minute, Master Yoda," Anakin folded his arms, "while I admit, I didn't imagine accepting a Padawan until after the war but from what I've seen of Ashoka… her kind of thinking is exactly what we need out here. With more experience and training under her belt, she will definitely make an impact."

"Then go with you, she will, to the Teth system."

"Teth? That's Wild Space, the droid armies aren't even in that sector."

"Kidnapped, Jabba the Hutt's son, has been."

"You want _me_ to rescue Jabba's son?" Anakin couldn't help a bit of incredulity escape into his voice. Jabba was of course, the Hutt who still controlled Tatooine, the planet Anakin had been enslaved on as a child - and who still continued to thrive there with all the vices and evils that the Hutts were known for. It was perhaps one of the things that made me wonder why the Jedi in the past hadn't gone crusader on the Hutts and the slave trade in general, but we probably had the blinkered, corrupt Senate and the damn idiotic Ruusan Reformation to thank for a lot of the evil shit that still existed in the galaxy.

"Anakin, we'll need the Hutts allegiance and their hyperspace lanes to make further inroads against the Separatists."

"Negotiate the treaty with Jabba, Obi-wan, will. Find the renegades that hold Jabba's son, your mission will be, Skywalker."

"Very well... Ahsoka, get Rex and tell him to organize the troops, we leave immediately."

I bowed to Master Yoda and hurried off to the LAAT that Rex was still waiting in, letting the elders have their conversation.

"Captain Rex, download everything from the database on the planet Teth and prepare for local conditions. We're going to rescue a baby slug."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Disney owns Star Wars, blah blah.**

 **Chapter 2**

It was one of the first burning questions that I satisfied when I realized I had hit the reincarnation wheel into the Galaxy Far Far Away and I was old enough to use a library computer - just how did hyperspace travel actually, practically work and make civilization on the scale of the galaxy possible. Suffice it to say, in the movies, hyperdrive travel was a hundred percent plot driven. The prime example I could use was the journey from Tatooine to Alderaan in the original Star Wars - no explicit reference is given in the scene, but it's sheer lunacy the speed of the _Millennium Falcon_ that's implied. In actuality that journey, all interstellar conditions being optimal, would take six days at least, and that's using the Corellian Run hyperspace lane.

In any event, our journey aboard the _Resolute_ \- Anakin's 'flagship' _Venator_ class star destroyer, and where the 501st Clone Battalion was primarily stationed, would take twenty hours to reach Teth from Christophsis, and that was achieved using the Corellian lane partially.

That downtime was well used by the troops; catching some sleep, drills, gym, target practice, training in general. What that meant for me was that I had barely set foot on the _Resolute_ before Anakin had me duel him right there in one of the landing bays, among all the crew and clones. So he could get a sense of where I stood in my training and apparently because he wanted to see if I could keep collateral damage to a minimum and fight among the troops without harming them.

I recall reading somewhere that facing Darth Vader on the assault was like facing a force of nature. Duelling Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight of the Clone Wars, was not like that, but I could definitely feel the beginnings of that utterly relentless pounding offensive Djem So style that Vader would develop. It was barely two minutes into our 'spar' and I was already feeling the burning strain in my arms of blocking the fourth _Falling Avalanche_ attack, needing to use both my blades to cross Anakin's single blue blade and a hefty amount of Force buffing to strengthen my body. I was so tempted to simply switch to Makashi or even pull in the moves I had developed from remembered Earth martial arts - but those were my trump cards to use when I was truly fighting for my life, and there was no way in hell I was showing them to the man who could potentially in the future, fall to the Dark side and be coming for my head.

I felt the impetus of Anakin's attack lose steam, and fluidly went into a riposte, counter-attacking low with my right blade, while keeping my left blade protecting my body. Anakin Force leapt over the blade smoothly, and intercepted my own version of the _Jar Kai_ Dual blade _Falling Avalanche_ with disgusting ease.

A warning from the Force had me disengaging my left blade from Anakin's and rapidly deflect blaster bolts being shot at my back. They were the yellow bolts of a training blaster that would sting rather nastily when they hit someone at lowest setting and utterly stun you at highest. I sent a sudden Force push the way of Anakin that pulled him away from my right blade enough to bring it around and briefly aid my defense - enough that I managed to deflect a bolt right back at that sneaky Captain Rex, who yelped as the bolt hit him right in his little sniper perch at the control booth for the hangar bay.

I twirled around just in time to lock blades with Anakin again.

"Sneaky, Master."

Anakin just grinned and resumed his offense. We finally called it quits after almost an hour of back and forth sparring. It was exhausting in every sense of the word, but I loved the workout, riding the endorphin high. There were many times during the spar where I had been 'killed' or 'wounded', and he would never fail to point it out.

I was kneeling in recovery meditation, covered in sweat, using the Force to in essence to self-heal from my exertions.

Anakin was in a similar pose opposite me, "That was quite good Padawan, and for your age, very impressive. Where did you rank facing the simulated Sith opponent during your Padawan Trials?"

"Second in my class, and that's only because I used the Force to trip the Sith and then cut his head off."

Anakin shook his head, "They penalized you for that?"

"The Master in charge of the Trials had added a handicap, I wasn't to use any offensive Force technique at all, only blade work. He also didn't like the fact that I kept killing off the Sith simulacrums with 'needlessly aggressive' finishers." There was a damn good reason for those, you only had to look at Sith like Darth Nihilus, Sion, Maul and even Vader to see how they all had been kept alive through dark side shenanigans because they hadn't been 'properly' killed by a decapitation, destruction of the brain or spinal column.

He shook his head in exasperation, "Let me guess, Master Mundi?"

I nodded, the look of near constipation on the Cerean Jedi's face as I finished a simulated Sith off with a downward stab through the neck had been priceless.

"Regardless, I can already see where we have to go from here with regards to your bladework. You've worked a lot on upper body strength and Force enhancement, given the fact that you're using dual blades, but we're going to have to step that up considerably. I want you to work to the goal of being able to eventually put as much strength in a single swing of either blade as you would with both hands on a single blade. I'll tell Rex to organize you some time in the gym and work with him. As much as those crusty old Masters would like to say otherwise, the body in the end, is the foundation, the better the body, the more force you can tolerate channeling into your blows. You also tend to favor your right side too much in ready stances, and the majority of the times when I got 'killing' attacks through was through your left side."

"I'm right handed," I shrugged, "still working on getting the left up to speed."

"Yes, its unfortunately not something that has a quick and easy fix. I'd be pleasantly surprised if you gain a Jar Kai mastery in the next ten years." I hadn't chosen it because it was easy, on the contrary, I'd chosen it precisely because it was so difficult, and therefore few chose it, which would not make me an easy target for any Sith asshole in the future. "I'll also be showing you some more Djem So that I want you to begin working on." He stood up. "All right, get some rest, I want you fresh and ready for anything when we reach Teth."

* * *

Being a Jedi and General Skywalker's padawan meant technically holding the rank of Commander, so I was issued quarters in Officer country aboard the _Resolute_. I had roughly ten square meters all to myself, which was decidedly tiny compared to what I was used to even in the monk like existence of the Jedi Temple.

The bed was hard, the shower limited to five minutes of running time, and a tiny desk with a computer integrated into it with a holo-display that hovered above it. There was even a small kitchenette, which was good enough for cooking and storage of some perishables. The closet was just big enough to store my armor in, and a couple of more traditional 'Jedi-like' outfits; leggings, skirts, and sleeveless tops in muted colours, and a few winter outfits. Traditional Jedi robes could die a fiery death in my opinion. I've only ever worn them at formal occasions.

My stomach reminded me that it was running on empty so I headed off to the officers' mess. It was like most of the ship, filled with Fett clones, but wearing the grey naval uniforms of starship personnel. It was like I was the only splash of colour walking into a grayscale painting. I found an empty plate and took a walk down the line where the cooks (yet more clones) slapped generous portions of food that had wonderful names like 'nutritional thirty-four' which was code for essentially the GFFA version of mash potatoes, that used some or other alien plant that created the same texture and taste. Actual meat wasn't in evidence at all, but there were artificial versions, that simulated it well enough and had the nutritional protein value, but my tongue could immediately tell there was just that _something_ missing.

Since I was Togruta, I had to decline most of the carbs on offer and stick to the proteins, there were only select fruits and plant matter that I could safely eat, and they were all thousands of light years away on the Togruta homeworld in the Expansion Region.

I took an empty table and began tucking in, resisting the urge to wolf it down. I was not someone who spent downtime utterly idle, so I pulled out a portable holo projector, put it to the side of my plate, and pressed the activation button. "Summary search, planet Teth, latest results, pull from the holonet and Jedi archives," the planet in question appeared in miniature and rolling text began to display, "and you're a jungle planet with some nasty critters… great."

It took me twenty minutes of reading before I was satisfied that I wouldn't be surprised by anything that was already known about the planet. So dismissed the search results and moved on to my favorite topic, spacebattles!, "Access file on local storage, Tano one delta."

What appeared was the warhead of a capital grade proton torpedo, but instead of being surrounded by a ray shield generator, maneuvering repulsors, computer, comlink and ferrous casing (so it could be accelerated along the electromagnetic launchers of a starship) of an ordinary torpedo this one was housed in an fifteen meter long missile tube. Inside of which was a sublight engine that due to the power to weight ratio being utterly ridiculous, could push the missile to fifteen thousand Gs of accel. Ray shielding would also prevent it from being shot down by point defense, like a normal torpedo, but the problem I was still trying to solve was one of maneuvering. The repulsors that I could fit in, given the power I could give them, meant that at the speed the thing was going that they simply couldn't turn the missile worth a damn if any course correction needed to be done in the terminal attack phase. I was basically trying to create a torpedo with a range measured in AU, not merely thousands of kilometers.

I could put in a small hypermatter fusion reactor, but its cost per unit would shoot into the stratosphere. No way the Republic bean counters would ever green light its production.

"Interesting."

The deep voice startled me out of my introspection, and I gazed into the mustachioed visage of Admiral Wulf Yularen holding his own plate of food. I was about to snap to my feet and salute… but the Admiral waved me down. "Please, Padawan Tano, this is Officer's mess we don't stand on ceremony here. Do you mind?" He indicated an empty seat opposite me.

"Of course not, Admiral, please."

He sat down and began primly eating while gazing at the holo. "Not something I'd thought I'd ever see a Jedi tinkering around with."

"No, I imagine it's not," I admitted ruefully. "But from a certain point of view, it's should be something a Jedi could look at. The Separatists can manufacture a single droid in under eight hours to the point of combat readiness. A basic Clone trooper takes eight years. Therefore, we need to give the clones and by extension, our ships, stand-off weapons that will destroy the enemy way before conventional ship to ship turbolaser range is reached. That way, we save lives or if we want to be cold-blooded about it, save troopers that can live to fight another day and spare resources."

"Hmmm," Yularen nodded, "when you put it that way, Padawan, it is logical."

"What would be even more logical is if the Republic also employed combat droids."

I nearly laughed at the expression on Yularen's face as he had the bad luck to swallow at the moment I said that. I could also sense more than a few clones that were in earshot suddenly stiffen in astonishment.

"Excuse me," he coughed, "are you being serious, Padawan?"

"Yes," I shrugged, "the Seps have a major logistical advantage over us, they just need fuel, energy, ammunition, and they're ready to go. We need all of that, plus food, plus life support, plus all the supplies any organic lifeform needs. They can throw their droids into near-suicidal and dangerous military maneuvers that we wouldn't do. So if I was in the Chancellor seat, I'd order that the growth of more clones be stopped, and commission Republic combat droid models that the current active clones would be in charge of in the field."

"Ah," Yularen scratched his chin, "it's an interesting notion, but I'm not sure we could afford the costs, since there is no private sector combat droid manufacturer allied with the Republic. That means a company like Industrial Automation would have to research and develop such a droid line from scratch - the money for which would have to come directly from Republic coffers. So not only would we have the cost of clones, equipment and the starfleet, we'd be adding droids as well."

My brain prickled with an obvious idea, and I smiled deviously, "If you can't build something yourself, and need it, but your enemy can build it..."

"I see where you are going with this," Yularen nodded, "reprogramming the droids is the easy bit, capturing them en masse and in useful numbers, then making sure there aren't any failsafes will be the hard part."

"But worth it in the end, to achieve victory and save lives in the process."

* * *

Four hours out from Teth, Torrent Company of the 501st, was gathered in the main briefing hall of the _Resolute_. Anakin walked up to main podium and began his briefing.

"Good morning, our target today..."

A large circular building with multiple towers arranged and built on top of a tall plinth of rock jutting up into the sky over eighty meters from the jungle floor appeared in giant holographic form.

"This is a B'omar Monk monastery on Teth, that's currently occupied by two supposedly 'renegade' droid battalions. Inside of which is being held prisoner a huttlet." An image of a typical infant hutt appeared; resembling lopsided teardrop of a slug, with two little spindly arms and huge yellow eyes. "This is Jabba's son and the hutt has given us only one Tatooine planetary rotation to return it. Given that we need to factor in the travel time from Teth to Tatooine...in the end we will have only three standard hours of time once we land to secure the hutlett and be on our way again. We'll be deploying Torrent Company with mechanized armor support. Given the expected Anti-Air defenses that means we'll have to land at the base of the mountain and ascend under fire, so make sure your ascension attachments in your rifle has plenty of ammo."

"Myself and Padawan Tano will take point once inside the monastery and spearhead the search for the hutt. Whoever is behind the kidnapping will also have some form of point man there, so our secondary objective is to capture them. General Kenobi with his battalion, is also already on his way as our backup."

"Any questions?"

Silence.

"Dismissed."

* * *

 _Resolute_ emerged from hyperspace and smoothly inserted into a low orbit of Teth. After doing as thorough scan as possible of the planet below the one thousand one hundred meter Star Destroyer decelerated and began a smooth descent into the atmosphere. The ship leveled out at over ten kilometers from the surface and well over sixty kilometers from the monastery, before opening its cavernous dorsal hangar bays. Torrent Company launched in six standard LAATs along with two carrier versions, that brought two All-Terrain Tactical Enforcer (AT-TE) Tanks.

Being inside one of these that was riding into a battle was honestly terrifying. No amount of Jedi zen really could compensate for the reality that you were trapped in a craft that was being shot at by heavy blasters and flak - that there was nothing you could do at all if the LAATs shielding was breached. You would be there one moment, the next, you would be dead or flung out of the dying transport while everything around you disintegrated.

I reached out and fortified myself through the Force, casting fear away as much as I could, reciting the Litany of Fear; _I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain._

Frank Herbert was awesome.

I opened my eyes to the interior of the LAAT, as it being jostled by blaster fire and felt Anakin's gaze on me. I met his eyes and he nodded approvingly, having clearly sensed what I had done.

"Stay close to me," he grinned with a challenging glint in his eye, "if you can."

"That won't be a problem, Master."

"This will be the real deal, Ashoka, a straight battle where anything can happen."

"I know."

The LAAT was jostled heavily and I nearly lost my footing, bumping into the trooper next to me.

The clone pilot turned in his seat in the cockpit, "Sir! The flak fire is thickening!"

"Lieutenant! Close the blast shields, get us under those guns!"

The LAAT was plunged into darkness until a trooper flicked a switch and the interior was bathed in red light.

"Red light, stand by." The troopers shouldered and raised their rifles, cocking charging handles and flicking switches on their DC-15S long blaster rifles.

I felt the LAAT start to slow down and flare in preparation for landing.

"Welcome to paradise, rockjumpers!" the pilot declared.

There was an abrupt jolt as the LAAT landed the interior changing to green light. The hiss of a servo motor, and I had to briefly squint as bright light flooded the interior as the side doors opened.

"Go! Go!"

I paused briefly to let the troopers go first, giving me space to activate my lightsabers and jumped out into a jungle battlefield. Red blasts of fire singeing and whining through the air, explosions above, blaster bolts hitting the earth, causing brief geysers of mud and sand to fling into the air. I was fully swimming in the current of the Force, my lightsabers twirling and dancing to deflect any threatening bolt that was arcing in from the droids high above us.

The AT-TEs were deployed and steadily walking forward at forty kph, their laser cannons angled upward and firing in bursts, and the big mass driver turret elevated as high as it could, occasionally adding to the destruction it was sending towards the droids.

The entire company rushed forward as fast as they could, while presenting the smallest profile to the enemy above. Inevitably the red plasma bolts from the droids would find their mark and a life would wink out to my perceptions.

We made it to the base of the plinth, now shielded from droid fire by the overhang of rock.

I couldn't spare the time to count the dead, nor do I think I wanted to.

When everyone who could had arrived and the AT-TEs started to lift their forward legs to clamp down and begin the vertical climb upward, Anakin gestured up. Every trooper raised their rifles and fired ascension cables. The cable could only reach about halfway up, so every trooper reloaded the rifle attachment before beginning the climb.

I bent my knees, reaching out to the Force, and _pushed_ into the highest jump I'd ever managed, letting me grab the cable nine meters up, I holstered a lightsaber, leaving only one to deflect bolts that were screeching down to me as I climbed under fire.

The now fully vertical AT-TE climbing the plinth sent a mass driver round directly into the overhang the droids were shooting down at us from, sending parts of broken droid raining down. Some fell intact and Anakin even managed to bisect a falling B2 as it was on its way down.

Spider droids, with their big comical looking 'eyes' and heavy blaster cannons for a nose, came crawling over on the side of the mountain, clamping into the rock face and sending fire down at us. Torrent company snipers finally made their presence felt at this point, using their DC-15X sniper rifles to send ridiculously overcharged blue plasma bolts directly into the spider droids. The DC-15X sent the equivalent power of eighty shots from a standard Clone blaster rifle into a single bolt, and as a result were also a decent anti-materiel rifle when fighting droid armor that wasn't ray shielded.

The four spider droids clamped onto the mountain face were wrecked with the coordinated shots of the snipers from the jungle below, and I had to use a hasty Force push to divert a falling droid from colliding with a group of ascending troopers.

When Torrent company had reached halfway up the mountain, the droids decided to go mobile to avoid the sniper fire. A squadron of twelve B1s mounted on armed speeder bikes swooped down from above. They concentrated their fire on a single AT-TE, overwhelming the shielding with a single salvo. The front legs and forward compartment were utterly wrecked, killing half the crew instantly, it titled back off balance, while the rear legs snapped under load pressures more than triple they were meant to sustain. The Republic tank fell, crashing against the mountain, and taking three unlucky nearby troopers with them to their deaths.

We couldn't afford to lose another tank, so I started swinging the cable I was climbing to build up some momentum before leaping in a Force assisted somersault towards the remaining AT-TE, and landed right on the flat forward viewport of the cockpit.

It startled the hell out of tank driver but he quickly recovered after recognizing me and got back to moving the tank. Now with a horizontal base under me and not having to do the work of climbing, I lit my second lightsaber and deflected fire from the droid speeders meant for the tank.

Busy as I was defending the company's only remaining tank, I could spare no attention to actually take out the annoying speeders. Thankfully, Anakin had seen it too and leapt off his cable when a speeder buzzed by, decapitating the B1 pilot with single swipe and appropriating the ride for himself. It was truly amazing how quickly he made short work of all the airborne droids, using the speeder's auto-blasters and his lightsaber like some bizarre futuristic vision of cavalry. Even when his own speeder took a hit, he swiftly abandoned it in mid-air, simply leaping to the speeder that had shot his, and taking that one over.

When it was done he zoomed up the mountainside.

"Gotta keep up, snips!" he shouted as he passed my now positively pedestrian tank.

"Hey! You could've at least left one for me, laserbrain!"

He used the damn speeder to destroy the last of the spider droids that were still hanging on up there, and jumped off, landing on the main exterior of the monastery.

"As fast as you dare, Lt!" I shouted down at the tank driver.

It was soon raining singed parts of B1 and B2s from Anakin no doubt going medieval on the droids up there, and soon even intact B1s as they screamed in simulated electronic terror as they fell from Force blasts and pushes.

By the time the tank was climbing over the lip of the balcony and onto a horizontal surface once more with Torrent company in support, Anakin had discovered a new game. He was using a droideka with engaged shields as a wrecking ball with telekinesis, against two others, keeping them knocked off their feet and the wrecking the last few remaining B1s.

I knocked on the window of the AT-TE, pointing at the wobbly droidekas.

The driver wasted no time in blasting them with a full power shot from the mass driver. Anakin used the Force to crumple his 'pinball' and turned to me with a quizzical expression.

"What took you so long?"

I folded my arms, "Funny, Skyguy."

"Skyguy?"

"I figure if you're going to use 'snips' to refer to me, then it's only fair I get to return the favor."

"All clear, General," Captain Rex reported burying his laugh into an amused cough.

"Good, detail some men to see to the wounded."

"Yes, sir. Sergeant."

"At once."

The company began their delegated tasks and securing the perimeter of the monastery.

"The size of this droid force can only mean the Separatists are trying to deceive Jabba, whilst they make pretensions at rescuing his son, they're the ones who did the kidnapping in the first place through a deniable third party," Anakin mused.

"So their endgame would be to make sure relations between the Republic and the Hutts are permanently soured by keeping us from rescuing the huttlet?"

"Yes, this is clearly the machinations of Count Dooku. So let's get this over with, time is running out."

We headed off from the main landing pad into the monastery courtyard with Rex, and four troopers taking up the rear. The main doors were identical to the one seen as Jabba's Palace front door, and would take very heavy firepower to blast through, a Force user to lift, or a handy astromech to slice the door controls - which R2 did in less than five seconds.

The entry hall was in pitch darkness, but it swiftly retreated in the light coming from the open door. There wasn't much internal lighting beyond that so the troopers activated their helmet mounted flashlights to pierce the darkness further in.

"Typical," Anakin shook his head as he saw the decomposed remains of a robed alien lying sprawled along the corridor, "smuggler gangs love taking over these kinds of monasteries precisely because the B'omar monks always build far from typical civilization and seek isolation."

"And the smugglers don't take 'no' for an answer." I felt the concentrated power of an active droid power cell ahead and lit both my lightsabers, grabbing one in a telekinetic grip I sent the blade hurtling into the darkness, spinning in a lethal fan of light.

There was a flash of light and singe as I felt my lightsaber slash through the droid and with a twist of will, the blade returned hilt first into my hand.

"Nice technique, snips."

Only it turned out that the droid I'd sensed wasn't a battle droid at all, but a silver protocol droid in the same model line as C3P0. My lightsaber had bisected the thing around the torso, and it was still twitching and mumbling, "I am.. but.. the … caretaker…" and it gave up the ghost a moment after.

"Good going, you killed a local, snips."

I shook my head, "No such thing as a friendly droid in any Separatist controlled area, Master." R2-D2 gave a blurt of worried tone that was easy to interpret. "Except any we bring ourselves of course, R2." I patted the droid on its dome reassuringly. I kneeled over the dead droid and pointed at its non-standard head, "Is it typical for that model head to be fitted on a protocol droid, Master?"

"No actually, that's a Z-series head - used by news media outlets - they have much larger and higher quality optical sensors, totally unnecessary… unless you intend it to be a spy." Anakin pulled on the torso section, and flipped it over carefully, exposing a rear access port. "R2, interface carefully, see what you can find."

The astromech whistled in affirmative and a logic probe extended from its side and plugged into the silver droid.

The Force shrieked a discordant warning just in time for us to watch the silver droid being utterly crushed by telekinesis, before distant retreating footsteps could be heard the darkness. R2 was left with his instrument stuck in the wreckage and had to detach the probe.

"Ventress," Anakin hissed, briefly engaging his lightsaber in reflex.

"Dooku's Sith assassin?"

"Yes, that was her. R2 did you manage to get anything?"

The astromech whistled in affirmative, displaying a holo of the monastery, and the lowest level lit up in red.

"They're holding the huttlet in the basement, can they get any more obvious?"

"Rex, hold our exit point, Ahsoka and I will head down."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

The lower levels were a total mess, filled with garbage, debris, parts, wrecked droids of too many models to name, canisters that had held spice were now empty but still had that distinctive tangy metallic odour that characterized the raw form of what was turned into ryll and glitterstim - mind and mood altering drugs that enjoyed a very illegal and lucrative trade across the Outer and Mid Rims, but was also smuggled into the Core for the seedy and very rich to enjoy.

The lowest level was once clearly the very spartan quarters the monks used to live in, now were completely stripped down and used as a crude detention facility with metallic doors occasionally blocking the entryways. The half-dozen B1 droids hiding in the deep shadows of each cell were very obvious to me.

"This is a trap, Master."

"I know," Anakin kept walking forward, sensing for the infant hutt.

"Oh," I nodded in understanding. I used the Force and yanked the droids out of the cells to slam them into the corridor walls. My lightsabers were lit and I threw my left blade to spin down the corridor, slashing at the level that bisected the droids' blasters and their chests. I recalled the saber and instead of grabbing it, let it past me and Anakin and into the shadows beyond where it felled another droid waiting in ambush.

"Good," he nodded and walked ahead.

He stopped at a nondescript metal door, "I sense the hutt in here."

I twitched as my nose was assaulted by a smell I could only describe as some unholy combination of skunk and odorous swamp. "Is that what all hutts smell like, Master?"

"Pretty much, though this one's pretty mild."

I tried imagine Jabba as even worse and wondered if hutts did that on purpose so their smell would be the equivalent of a natural biological stun weapon.

Anakin gestured at the locking mechanism and the hydraulics engaged to shoot the door upward abruptly. The light hit a miserable little slug like creature, barely a quarter meter in height, patterned in brown, and seeing us began to whimper and wail like most any infant sentient would. Only that while most humanoid aliens would look 'cute', an evolutionary imperative programmed into us to make us dote on infants to make us forget their shortcomings, on a non-humanoid like a hutt, it only caused me a reflex of revulsion.

"He's even younger than I thought he'd be."

The big eyes of the infant hutt stared at us imploringly. _Life is life_ , I reminded myself vigorously, even if it stank to high heaven, but I wasn't going to touch that so I called on the Force and carefully levitated the hutt. I imagined a floating repulsor couch, much like what his big daddy would use to get around in the future.

"If Obi-wan was here, he'd reprimand you for frivolous use of the Force, but I can't bring myself to do the same," Anakin commented, "lets just get out of here."

* * *

We were back in the courtyard and the little Hutt had been loving the Force ride so far, however when we entered the sunlight it allowed me to see a rather concerning fact about him - the phlegm gathering on the edges of his mouth, and some clear discoloration in his skin. I carefully placed a hand on the brow of the Hutt and listened to what the Force was telling me was going on inside.

"Master, JJ here is sick."

Anakin paused and put a hand on the Hutt as well, "yeah, that temperature is way too high. The unsanitary conditions down there must have taken their toll. JJ?"

"Jabba Junior," I explained.

"We have to get _JJ_ here then to the medical bay of the _Resolute_. Trooper, get me a backpack and empty it out."

A few moments later a clone brought a standard issue backpack that JJ was slightly too fat to fit in all way, but allowed half his body to enter, leaving his head and arms sticking out. Of course, he much preferred my 'Force couch', and started wailing again the instant we placed him in his new transport accommodations.

Of course, being the Padawan I was relegated to wearing JJ's impromptu baby carrier.

I heard the vibration of Anakin's holocom and he keyed it up, to reveal a miniature full body image of Obi-wan.

"Greetings Anakin, do you have the Hutt?"

"We have him, but it's clear the Separatists are the ones behind the abduction."

Obi-wan nodded in understanding, "Yes, I had a feeling given what I observed while speaking to Jabba. Count Dooku is using us in an effort to sway the hutts to the Separatist cause."

"Master Kenobi, there's also the problem that through what is no doubt purposeful neglect, Jabba's son is very sick. If he dies in our custody…" I didn't need to finish that sentence.

Obi-wan stroked his beard thoughtfully, "That is what Dooku no doubt intends and he will endeavour to make sure it happens, utterly destroying any chance for a Treaty with the Hutts to use their outer rim hyperspace lanes."

An urgent beeping came from Anakin's holocom and the holoform of Admiral Yularen appeared, next to Obi-wan, "General Skywalker, a Separatist Cruiser has just emerged from hyperspace and has launched two landing craft and a squadron of fighter droid escorts."

"Sithspit," Anakin swore, "all right, get the _Resolute_ into orbit and engage, you're a sitting mynock down here. We'll have to hold out until you deal with the cruiser."

"I'm due to arrive at your location within the hour Anakin, we'll hope my forces aren't needed as well. Protect the Hutt at all costs."

"Defensive positions!" Anakin shouted as he pocketed his com.

I could see the distant form of the _Resolute_ shoot upwards at its maximum atmospheric speed of nine hundred kilometers per hour, leaving a sonic boom in it wake. The clones found what little cover they could in the open courtyard and turned it into a giant killbox. High in the sky overhead, the flat double pronged shapes of Sep Landing craft appeared and grew closer with alarming speed, along with the smaller forms of droid fighters.

Then a lot of smaller forms detached and rocketed down towards us. B2 and spider droids rained down, slowing their fall into controlled descents with built in jets and repulsors. The fighter droids opened fire to cover their landing.

I was already busy deflecting blaster fire, very conscious that I would have to take JJ into account if I had to pull off any acrobatics to stay alive.

The AT-TE thought was making its presence felt, all its guns were trained on the entrance from the landing platform and was making scrap of the steadily marching droid company that was being disgorged more conventionally from the landing craft.

"Get inside, Ahsoka," Anakin ordered as his blade flashed through air and redirected fire back at the droids.

I saw his point, fighting with JJ on my back was not an option, and ran for the monastery entrance, using the Force to levitate one of my blades and hovered it behind my back where it intercepted any bolt that would've hit JJ. Once inside, I retrieved the blade and found R2 there warbling with concern at the progressing battle.

"R2, we need an alternate escape route out of the monastery, is there anything you got from that droid that could help?" The astromech whistled in confirmation and displayed a holo of the monastery, in red it highlighted a secondary hidden landing pad that could deploy from the nominal 'rear' of the monastery and was built into the cliff face on that side.

A large explosion rocked the air and I saw that the AT-TE had died under the combined fire of the advancing droids, and the surviving troopers were retreating into the monastery.

"Quick R2, get plugged into the door controls and get ready to scramble it." Torrent company rushed in, and when I saw the majority was beyond the threshold, "lower the doors, R2."

Anakin, being what he was, was the last to enter safety, rolling under the descending doors at the last possible moment.

"Captain Rex," he shut down his lightsaber, "we'll stay here until Admiral Yularen or General Kenobi arrives with reinforcements."

I shook my head, "Master, adopting a siege mentality now isn't a good idea. It won't be long until the Seps can physically barge their way through the door, Ventress is out there and time is ticking if we're to make it to Tatooine in time, oh and we have to get JJ some medical attention on the way too."

Anakin pursed his lips and nodded, "I see your point, I hope you have a plan, snips?"

I nodded and turned to R2, "Can you open that pad up from here R2?" The droid hooted.

"Pad?"

"On a hunch I had R2 look for another way out, just in case this happened. There's a secondary landing pad that can deploy from the base of the north end of the monastery."

"Good thinking, snips. Captain, I want you to briefly hold this entrance, then retreat deeper into monastery and scatter by squad, divide their forces into hunting for you."

"Yes, sir. We'll give 'em hell."

"Ahsoka, R2 lets get to that landing pad."

* * *

We were halfway to the pad with R2's guidance on the shortest possible route when the entire monastery was rocked with an explosion and the echoes of blaster fire and battle rumbled through the entire structure. By the time we had emerged onto the pad itself a massive aerial battle was underway as what I recognized as _Resolute_ 's Alpha squadron's ARC-170 starfighters clashed with their fighter droid counterparts. In the far distance we could see the star destroyer once again descending into the atmosphere.

"It seems the Admiral's done the job upstairs."

Anakin nodded and tapped on his wristcom, "Admiral Yularen, mark my position, I need a medical ship down here…"

Only static replied.

I shook my head, "Those Seppie landing craft must be generating a jamming signal." Then felt a ping on my senses, and lit my lightsabers, "Incoming droidekas."

Two of the rolling droids appeared in the large corridor leading to the pad, came to a stop and deployed in the same motion, shields jumping to life and began spewing plasma bolts our way. They were not alone; a tall, severe bald woman, wearing a dark blue dress and skin tight top casually walked into view behind the droid. Her makeup made her look even more eerie, dark blue tattoos that were drawn from the edges of her mouth down to her pointed chin, with others sprinkled about her face. This close I could finally sense her in the Force and it wasn't the most pleasant experience to say the least. But no one would ever accuse Asajj Ventress, former Nightsister of the Dathomir witch clan, and now Sith assassin and apprentice of Count Dooku of being pleasant at all.

"R2, doors!" Anakin ordered and droid rushed over to the controls.

Ventress clearly didn't want that to happen and threw a Force push at the droid, I countered it with my own and focused on deflecting as much of the droideka blaster fire right back at her.

She had to jump back and drew her own red dual blades in defense, but R2 had managed to reach the door controls and shut them right in her face.

The doors of this platform were too thin, and Ventress stabbed her blades through and began cutting.

"Okay, as much as I would enjoy getting even with her, it'd be all too easy for her kill JJ during the fight. We have to retreat, maybe into the jungle."

We rushed over to the edge of the pad. "Master, the jungle is a very hostile place. Even if we could fight off every nasty creature, the environment will make JJ's health even worse."

A droid fighter was hit at this point and spiraled to its destruction, hitting the side of the mountain and exploding. It was near the nests of some kind of large flying insectile creature easily as big as a plane - who promptly started to evacuate their stricken and damaged nests.

Anakin turned to the door as R2 joined us, "Looks like we're out of options." Ventress' blades had nearly finished cutting a hole.

JJ decided to poke my head at that point and whine. "What is it now, JJ?" The hutt did it again. "Ouch."

"Ah ha, Ahsoka, JJ's found us a ride," Anakin pointed off to the north-west, where a layer of low clouds had parted to reveal another tall mountain plinth, with a landing pad cut into the very top, except this one actually had a small cargo ship. The problem was it was nearly ten kilometers distant.

"How are we going to get over there?"

He simply pointed at the large swarming insectile flyers and I felt the Force surge from him - abruptly one of the flyers changed course and headed directly for us. _Ah, he's using Force Domination on the animal's mind._

Ventress' hole was finished, but before she could push it through I gathered the Force against the smoking circular piece of door, and held it fast with telekinesis. She was having none of that, and I could instantly feel her throwing her own power against it, in an effort to wrest control away from my mental grip.

 _No weight, no difference in power, the Force is with me, I am one with the Force. That door is closed. She might have a lot of power gathered in her selfishness, but I have the RIVER!_

"Climb on Ahsoka!"

I jumped onto the insectile flyer behind Anakin and only when we were well away, did I release the hold on the door. The circular piece abruptly came flying out like a missile and Ventress emerged with both red sabers onto the landing pad and snarled with frustrated fury at us.

I was relieved that R2 was also flying in formation with his leg jets deployed. Didn't want him to fall into Separatist hands. At the speed Anakin managed to coax out of our pet insect flyer, we made good time, and thankfully didn't draw the attention of the various fighter droids dogfighting in the air.

We jumped off onto the landing pad barely five minutes later and regarded our new ride.

It was an old Corellian G9 Rigger freighter under thirty five meters in length, which like most Corellian designs favored function heavily over form; it was basically just a rectangular block main body with a starboard wing and a folding ventral wing. The thing came with it's gray factory paint job and showed a lot of wear and tear. _Hello Twilight_ , I thought. It's boarding ramp was open and a lot of spice containers were strewn about, clearly from when the smugglers got out of dodge when the Seps moved in.

"R2, Ahsoka, get on board and prime the engines, assuming it has any engines."

It was just as I was about to set foot on the ramp that I looked up and three B1s appeared at the top. " _All cargo loaded._ "

" _Roger, roger… oh no, a Jedi._ "

"Yes, Jedi," I agreed, and used the Force to yank all three off their feet and past me, where they were clotheslined by my lightsabers.

We entered the ship and not wanting any more unwelcome visitors, retracted the ramp. It was a short walk into the forward cockpit and we took our seats at the pilot and co-pilot's stations respectively, with R2 anticipating his master's request and plugging his standard computer interface port to begin diagnostics and hack the ship's systems for use. He beeped his success barely thirty seconds later. I was now sitting with JJ's backpack on my lap and idly tried to boot up the station - to no effect.

"Good work, R2," Anakin praised and basically pressed the 'start' button on the console. The engines whined and spluttered but did not engage. "R2, see if you can't reroute some power from auxiliary to spark the ignition couplers." The engines got a little more life but still failed. "Open the fuel lifters all the way." The cockpit suddenly sprang to life with light behind the displays and the engines hummed in a steady cadence. "Good work, buddy."

Anakin pulled on the throttle lever and control sticks, and the ship briefly jerked into the air before lifting off smoothly. "Okay, heading for the _Resolute_ , three minutes out at top speed… and hope this junker doesn't come apart on us before then."

I meanwhile got busy at the co-pilot station by slaving the blaster cannon controls to my screen and checking them over. "Good news, Master. We've got some nice upgraded technically illegal black market guns on this thing. Should have more than enough output to grind through any droid fighter."

"The shields are in a sorry state though," Anakin commented from his own readouts. "Which is strange since you'd think they prioritize shields on a spice smuggling boat."

"Maybe they were due for replacement, hence why they just abandoned the ship when the Seps showed up."

"Probably."

I brought up the scanners - and found the ship had the standard mix of radar, lidar, gravimetric and magnetometric sensors, active and passive, with poor civilian grade resolution - not really surprising. I set them to omnidirectional briefly, then focused forward towards where the _Resolute_ was…

"Nerfshit… the _Resolute_ is engaged with a Sep frigate."

The cloud cover parted and we treated to the sight of the _Resolute_ engaged in slugging match with a _Munificent_ class star frigate. It would ordinarily have been no contest, but the _Resolute_ had visible battle damage from its previous fight in orbit - three of its portside capital turbolasers were down, and Admiral Yularen was keeping his starboard side facing the enemy. The fighter battle taking place was a conflagration of epic proportions. V-wings, Actis Interceptors and ARC fighters were fighting in the airspace between the two starships against a swarm of droid tri-fighters and Vulture droids.

"Ummm, Master… I don't think we can dock, they'd have to lower a hangar deflector shield and then it'd take just a single droid fighter to perform a suicide run and the _Resolute_ could be crippled. Not to mention we don't have any Republic IFF on this rust bucket, they're likely to shoot us out of the sky before we can even say 'Don't shoot'."

"Blast!" Then he took a breath and checked a few readouts on the HUD. "Okay, R2, program the navicomputer, get us a course to Tatooine, best speed. There should be enough fuel."

Anakin pulled the small freighter around and headed for space.

My console lit up in red, "Three vulture droids locked on!"

Anakin abruptly shifted to full throttle and began banking and evading, as streams of red blaster bolts flashed past us into the distance. I brought up the guns and powered them up to full, but first had to rotate them to face rear. Then began the difficult process of trying to shoot wildly maneuvering droid fighters, with the added complication of the evasive maneuvers Anakin was pulling with turrets that had a decidedly slow refire rate than what I was used to and their response to remote input was sluggish as a snail.

I took a deep breath and let the frustration go. _One with the Force, the Force is with me. One with the Force_.

"Ahsoka, any time now."

I guided the turrets to traverse starboard.

"Ahsoka…"

 _The Force is with me. One with the Force…_

"Ahsoka!"

I keyed the trigger sending two bolts into the airspace behind the ship, seemingly completely missing… then a Vulture droid swooped down right into bolts' path for an attack run and blew up.

We finally broke atmo and raced for the edge of the gravity well.

I pushed the turrets down and again sent blaster fire into empty space, achieving another deflection shot that caused the second Vulture droid to blow up, and its wreckage spiralled out of control right into the path of the third.

"Well done, snips!"

I let out a deep breath, "Thanks Master." The lack of whimpering in the general din of the cockpit drew my attention and I noted with alarm that JJ was really looking listless and his colour had worsened. "How long to Tatooine?"

R2 let out a long string of whistles, beeps and tones.

"With the hyperdrive on this thing and R2's plotting, sixteen hours. That means we should get there before Jabba's deadline, assuming no further problems."

Anakin pulled on the main hyper control lever and the engines whined in concert with the hyperdrive motivator - starlines stretched and the ship plunged into the seemingly endless blue tunnel of hyperspace.

"I'm going to see what medical supplies or facilities there are, as far as I remember, all Corellian ships have med-bays of various sizes as standard."

"Good thinking, snips. I'll work with R2 on getting this bucket of bolts in better working order, and let Obi-Wan know our situation."

* * *

 **A/N: So we have the first battles of our journey, hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** **Star Wars is owned by Disney.**

 **Chapter 3**

I found the med-bay after trying door number four as I explored through the cramped crew confines of the Rigger freighter - any paint or labeling on the floors and doors had long since faded into illegibility.

The medbay only had one bed, recessed into the bulkhead and was practically a closet. I carefully put JJ down onto the biobed and with a bit of experimentation found the right button to activate the auto-doc. A hologram of a medical droid blossomed into existence next to me, while a scanner arm popped out of a slot above the bed and began a scan of JJ.

" _Gre...gre...greetings, I am D4-S1, medical… med… med…"_

"Yes, yes, you're a medical droid, or a disembodied medical droid built into a ship… anyway, I've got a sick huttlet here."

" _Hmmm, yes, yes, scanning, high fever due to bacterial infection of the lungs, or at least the Hutt equivalent of lungs…"_ a panel popped open on the side of the bed. " _Administer the booster labeled R394, once every four hours, over the course of a standard day."_ The panel concealed a full rack of various pen-like devices with similar labelings on the ends, there were a few empty slots, but thankfully I found the prescribed booster. The booster was not an injection or even a 'hypospray', but quite simply a oral spray that I could just jam one end into JJ's mouth and press the button. " _That should stabilize the patient, if there are any further problems or complications I recommend you consult an actual Doctor native to the species as soon as possible."_ The holo vanished abruptly.

"Not much of a bedside manner, that one."

The booster also had the handy side effect of making JJ quite sleepy and barely half an hour later the little slug was fast asleep.

We spent the next six hours doing as many in-flight repairs as we could. I was nowhere near the mechanic or starship tinkerer that Anakin Skywalker was - who at eight could build a pod racer out of junk that made the Thrust SSC supersonic vehicle back on old Earth look amateurish - but I could do the basics of starship maintenance.

Finally Anakin called it an end to our day and set R2 to keep watch in the cockpit while we headed off to the two tiny crew cabins that would allow us to get some rest. It took nearly a further half hour to clean up my selected cabin to the point where I could feel comfortable enough stripping down to my underwear and sleep on the very deeply dented old bed.

* * *

The next 'morning' according to my body clock at least, was decidedly uncomfortable. Both Anakin and I had taken one look at the ship's 'Refresher' - which was Star Wars euphemism for a WC - a shower-toilet combo - and decided to wait until we could get back to the _Resolute_ for a shower, and made do with a bucket for nature's other call. The place was absolutely disgusting, practically a bio-hazard zone.

JJ had thankfully survived as well with no further complications, the medicine having completely broken the fever and subsequent scans showed that the infection was subsiding.

We emerged from hyperspace at an amazingly close range to Tatooine - R2 had clearly done some navigational magic and explained that he had plotted a grav neutral zone close to Tatooine that was caused by the twin binary stars of the system during this time of year, which let us emerge well into the traditional mass shadow limit that forced a conventional emergence well over a hundred and twenty thousand kilometers from the planet itself.

The desert planet itself from space was utterly surreal to me. In so many media had I seen versions of this world, as Revan as a Knight of the Old Republic, in the films, in the MMO, but actually seeing it in Real World definition so to speak - so much history here for a world seemingly so barren and small.

"I was hoping I'd never have to lay eyes on this dustball again," Anakin commented as he settled behind the pilot's yoke and stared at the approaching planet with narrowed eyes.

I remained silent. Really, what could one say about the fact that you were born into slavery on a Hutt cartel controlled world, got your freedom at age eight, but had to leave your mother behind, then the Jedi essentially railroad you away from 'saving' her, due to that idiotic 'no attachments' rule, then when you finally manage to get out there, find that while she was released from slavery by your new stepfather barely a year after you left… she was taken and then killed by Tusken raiders barely a week before your arrival and later died in your arms when you tracked her down.

If there was one thing about Anakin's actions that I fully understood and supported - it was killing the Tusken raiders after they had killed his mother. That specific Tusken clan had been responsible for a dozen deaths among the Moisture Farmers Co-operative by luring them into a trap. By wiping out that Tusken clan - I wonder how many people of Tatooine owed their lives to Anakin, just because he had prevented those Tuskens from killing and pillaging anymore.

"R2, how are those shields coming?" Anakin suddenly asked.

The astromech blurted tones in reply.

I shook my head, "Those rear shield emitters still doesn't want to energize beyond twenty percent?"

R2 bleeped an affirmative.

"We've tried everything, those emitters need a full replacement," Anakin explained.

The proximity alarm drew my attention to the scanners. "Master, we've got two inbound heavy fighters."

"Is JJ secure?"

I nodded, "I anticipated a hostile reception, Master. He's strapped in secure on the biobed."

"Good," he abruptly twisted on the yoke and slammed the throttles forward. Streams of red blaster shots missed us as the fighters closed into range. He threw the ship ever wilder maneuvers to evade, but the two fighters managed to score a hit with their converging fields of fire.

Sparks flashed through the cockpit, alarms and damage warnings flashed on my screen, I dismissed the warnings, and brought up the gun controls again. We had managed to fix the refire rate issue and slightly improved the turret traversal, but anything more would require external access and repairs.

"Master, keep our transversal as high as possible."

"Little difficult considering we're a slow bucket of bolts, snips."

At the Force's prompt I sent a stream of red plasma bolts in an arc. The bolts one after the other chewed away at the enemy fighter before one breached an engine and it exploded into pieces that flew away with their initial momentum.

Then a blast managed to hit our rear shields again, which promptly failed, and allowed the next bolt to completely shear off the lower ventral wing. Now given this was space, the wing didn't have anything to do with aerodynamics, but it did house a number of important repulsor vector controls, and our maneuverability instantly became way less.

Anakin was straining now to throw the ship into the evasives that was required to stay alive, while I was scrambling with the gun controls to bring them over to kill the remaining fighter.

I gritted my teeth as I sent blasts from both dorsal and wing cannons towards the enemy fighter.

It blew up satisfyingly but managed one last direct hit on us, that had me nearly braining myself on the forward console from the lateral impact waves.

"Main stabilizer is down and engine… I'm setting our approach vector as close to Jabba's palace as possible… but we're going down. Strap in, Ahsoka."

"Sithspit," I grabbed the crash webbing and secured it around me as the planet now totally filled the forward viewport.

He let his cybernetic arm do the work of trying to keep our vector stable, while he keyed the hypercom. "Obi-wan, come in. Do you copy?"

The light beige robed and lightly armored figure of the Jedi Master appeared on the cockpit dash. " _Kenobi here. Have you reached Tatooine yet?"_

"Almost, but we ran into a small problem."

Obi-wan sighed, " _Anakin, did you get shot down_ again _?_ "

"Yes he did, and he can't blame it on my gunnery."

Anakin gave me a disgruntled look, "This ship is too slow, and there hasn't been enough time to modify it to my usual standards."

" _Well, I'm about an hour behind you. Obi-wan out._ "

The viewports suddenly lit up with ionization and flame as we entered Tatooine's atmosphere, thankfully our forward shields were strong enough that the ship could easily handle the event.

"Hang on, this landing could get a little rough," he warned as he fought with the controls.

"I think this will count more as a _crash_ landing, Master."

The vector was initially too steep and we were looking at a nose dive straight into the planet spanning deserts, but Anakin managed to coax power from auxiliary to the remaining repulsorlifts to even the ship's descent out.

It was now to the point where I could make out individual dunes in the ocean of sand fast approaching.

"Crap, crap, dune! Pull up!"

"I see it," Anakin grunted with gritted teeth, but despite his efforts the ship's underbelly smashed and deformed the top of a dune and bounced off, continuing its momentum. The impact was bad enough to knock the breath out of me even through the crash webbing.

Then another rapid series of impacts before a deep rumbling echoed through the hull as the carved a long trench through the loose sand before finally coming to a stop and I breathed a sigh of relief as the crash webbing painfully unyielding hold let go.

"You okay over there, snips?"

I removed the belts and winced, "Bruised but otherwise fine, Master. I'll go check on JJ."

In the medbay I found that it had weathered the crash well, though all the medicines were strewn about the place, and the hutlett had weathered the crash with no problems after I conducted a quick scan, though he was screaming and whining like the true infant he was.

We had to open the rear cargo doors to exit the ship and the first thing that hit me like an invisible Force push, was the heat.

It was insane. Just from feeling alone I estimated that I had walked into a planetary wide oven, it was easily over forty degrees, and given the local time and positions of the suns… it was mid morning. I settled JJ into his travelling backpack, also stuffing extra water bottles from the ship's stores along the sides. I stared into the far off distance, seeing just sand, sand, and more sand.

"If you can walk away from a landing…"

"Snips?"

I was startled at Anakin's appearance at my side, I'd been so absentmindedly contemplating the journey ahead.

"Oh, just an old adage I heard somewhere, if you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you can use the ship the next day, it's an outstanding landing."

Anakin chuckled ruefully and looked behind him at the smoking freighter, "It's salvageable but I doubt I can get it running by tomorrow. So good landing it is then." He pointed a few degrees from the direction of the morning sun. "Jabba's palace is on the far side of the Dune Sea, our position is roughly thirty two clicks from it."

"That's amazingly good precision for a crash landing, Master."

"Yes, well, thanks for the compliment, snips…but I would be much happier if I'd brought us crashing in on Jabba's front door. We'd better hurry if we're going to make it by the deadline - I'd estimate we have less than ninety minutes. How did you fare in Jedi endurance training?"

"I can make it, Master. The Force is with me."

"Let's see then."

Anakin took the backpack, leaped off the edge of the ship and his legs started to furiously pump in a blur as he sped off. I mirrored his movements and embraced the Force, buffing my legs and cardio vascular system before settling into the rhythm of the sprint. R2 followed on his leg jets, but had to use them in jumps to both prevent excessive energy usage and to keep the prickly, abrasive sand from clogging the wheels in his feet too much.

This was going to be a long, long run.

* * *

Time was strange to your perceptions when you were doing something that strained your body excessively, it could either seem like it was taking forever just to run a kilometer or the terrain would just blast by in a blur and the next thing you knew over an hour had passed. Anakin called a halt at this point to allow us re-hydrate when…

"I guess it was too much to hope for that Dooku wouldn't take a personal hand in this scheme," I gulped a full bottle down and went through stretch exercises to aid the Force in working away the lactic acid buildup.

"I sense it too," Anakin nodded. "The Dark side…he's gathering strength...time to split up."

"I'd be a liability in a fight of that level," I nodded. "Only problem is he'd definitely sense what we're doing, if I take JJ ahead he'd just ambush me instead."

"I've got enough of a sense of JJ's presence in the Force, that I'm confident I can sell an illusion to the Count's senses. I'll take the backpack and seal it, to carry the bluff further. You on the other hand have to radiate your presence in the Force enough to drown out JJ's true location, since you're using Force Endurance it should be easy enough, and also convince Dooku that you're sloppy in your use of the Force."

"Master, can you handle splitting your concentration like that?" I bit my lip with worry. As much as I knew Anakin should survive - the butterfly effect was a gnawing and steadily growing issue, and at no point as far I knew, did Palpatine ever directly order Darth Tyrannus to keep Anakin alive.

"Trust me, snips," he placed a hand on my shoulder. "You've got the most important part of this mission, take R2 with you."

"Very well, Master."

I used one of the two blankets we'd brought along for the cold nights of the desert and tied JJ to my back with it. Then once I was sure he was secure, began a Force assisted run that carried me nearly two kilometers west before I turned back onto course for Jabba's palace. I kept my Force presence flared, efficiently pulling in but radiating the Force out - imagining a floodlight.

The palace rose into blurry view as the light was twisted by the hotter air, creating a mirage that mirrored it on the ground. I was so focused on maintaining my bloated Force presence that I totally missed sensing the damn insurance policy Count Dooku left behind.

Three IG-100 Magnaguard droids burst into life from the sand like some demented jack-in-the-boxes. They unslung their Electrostaffs and activated them, their ends radiating violet electricity. There was no point in slowing down my momentum as that would just end up with me on the defensive, so I went on the attack. With the amount of Force I was juggling at the moment it was quite easy to gather and Iaunch a Force Push that I rated easily as the strongest I had yet managed.

The Magna droids were relatively close together so I managed to let the Push encapsulate all three. They were flung off their feet and bowled over completely. My lightsabers leapt into my hands lit and I dragged them through a collapsed Manga droid as I passed it, before finally hitting the brakes and turning to face the remaining two, who rather agilely vaulted to their feet.

Their staffs began twirling and they charged to attack.

I intercepted both staffs in the outer ring of defense, high and low, pushing into the guards of both droids. They pulled away, swinging in the next instant for my legs. I jumped into a Force assisted somersault over their heads, and my lightsabers neatly severed both droid's heads. I landed behind the headless droids, twirled the blades down into reverse grips and stabbed them through the main central chassis, before yanking them down and out.

Both collapsed to the ground with their primary and secondary computer cores destroyed, and just to be on the safe side, I brought the lightsabers around in slashes that filleted them further.

"You okay back there, JJ?"

The hutlett made a few rather annoying gurgles that I sensed… he was radiating enjoyment, he had clearly liked the impromptu speed ride and roller coaster while wrapped on my back.

I walked forward with weary sigh, spotted the discarded electrostaffs of the Magna droids and was hit with an idea. I grabbed a staff and immediately knew I wouldn't ever be wielding one in an emergency, the damn things were way too heavy.

"Alright, JJ, time to get you home."

My senses were cast out and felt for how Anakin was doing against Dooku. Good news was that he was still alive, and I could also feel the angry presence of the Count, but beyond that I couldn't tell much more… the Force was a mess in that direction due to the fighting.

"Kill that old fart, Skywalker." I couldn't wait any further, Jabba's deadline was close.

* * *

I approached the massive front door of Jabba's Palace when it began to rise up with a screech of metallic servos. Four armed aliens and an elaborately painted protocol droid emerged.

"Greetings, I am Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, I have come to reunite Jabba with his son." I untied the blanket's knot and brought JJ forward for inspection. The protocol droid stepped closer.

" _Scanning, verified identity, Rotta Desilijic Tiure. Please, follow me._ "

Inside my escort was increased to three more aliens with ready blasters and two gamorreans armed with vibro-axes. R2 gave worried tones but I patted his dome to calm him down. My appropriated electrostaff tapped with each step, echoing off the cavernous entry hall, where we were further led through another door, then a bunch of twisting hallways and turns, that were clearly designed to confuse intruders, but wouldn't really do much to stop a Jedi from finding his way.

We finally emerged into the infamous 'throne room' of Jabba, where the giant slug himself was perched on a dais overlooking everyone. The place was a practical menagerie of nonhuman species - who were all armed to varying degrees or sitting around tables and sharing drinks. The ones casually standing along the walls and various nooks and crannies were bounty hunters, and smugglers of every caliber you could imagine. If there was ever a den of scum and villainy as Obi-wan would say, this place was it.

I walked rather nervously onto the patterned floor that was actually a trap that would deliver you to a rather messy death below if Jabba so wanted… I didn't sense a rancor, but there was some form of nasty beasty down there, something not as big but more flat, longer and sinuous.

"Mighty Jabba," I bowed, "as negotiated between you and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, your son, Rotta, I present."

"Whoooo, Rotta!" the big slug declared, his eyes widening before glancing at his protocol droid, where after a rapid exchange in Huttese occurred. Jabba held out his arms to me but I didn't move to hand over the huttlet.

"Mighty Jabba, before I hand over your son, you must be made aware of certain facts. The presence of Count Dooku nearby indicates to me that he must have been here after Master Kenobi left, and more than likely sowed distrust and outright lied to you."

Jabba began speaking and the protocol droid translated, "That is correct. He indicated that the Jedi Skywalker had killed Rotta as his droid forces was attempting to rescue my pookie on Teth. He also said your arrival on Tatooine was in an effort to kill me, but you bring my son before me safe and healthy as Jedi Kenobi stated."

"I will also say to you, Mighty Jabba, that when my Master and I rescued your son on Teth, he was in fact, being held by the Separatists, and we had to fight our way through. They continued to attack even as we retreated hoping to kill your son while in our custody. And here on Tatooine, the Count's Magna droids attacked me while carrying your son, not twenty minutes ago," I explained.

Jabba growled in anger and his large eyes narrowed in thought, but before he could continue speaking, an insistent beeping from a holoprojector near the protocol droid position caught everyone's attention.

"The Mighty Jabba's Uncle, Ziro the Hutt is contacting us."

The projector resolved not into an blue tinted image of a hutt, though, but rather a woman wearing a figure hugging white outfit that I recognized instantly.

"Greetings honorable Jabba, I am Senator Amidala of the Galactic Congress. I have discovered a plot against you by one of your own. Your Uncle will admit he conspired with Count Dooku to kidnap your son and frame the Jedi for the crime."

Her image was abruptly replaced by a large purplish hutt with rather elaborate tattoo markings all over his body, and judging from the body language, the hutt was feeling rather miserable.

"Ziro! Tadgaa woojieeska!?" Jabba growled.

"Onitja, wajango Jabba."

"Wooto wa ki wa!" he pointed menacingly at the holo.

"No bata Jabba, it was Count Dooku!"

"Waaa, ji naga Ziro gee!"

Ziro vanished and was replaced with Amidala.

"Ziro will be dealt with by the Hutt families, most severely," the protocol droid spoke up.

"Perhaps now you will allow the Republic to use your trade routes and hostilities between us can come to an end."

Jabba laughed and spoke.

" _Jabba agrees and a treaty is in order,_ " the protocol droid translated.

"You will not regret this Jabba," Amidala smiled.

" _The clone armies may move through Jabba's territories and hyperspace lanes._ "

"Senator, while I'm sure all these politics are very important and all," I spoke up, "I think it is time to reunite a father and his son."

I took a step forward and held up Rotta who gurgled and smiled in happiness as he recognized his father immediately. Jabba eagerly grabbed the little tyke and settled the huttlet on his thick rubbery arm.

Amidala's holo turned to face me, "Padawan Tano, the Republic thanks you for your service. I understand you're General Skywalker's new student. Is he nearby perhaps?"

"One moment, Senator." I reached out through the Force and smiled at the results. Dooku was still alive unfortunately and heading rapidly away from Tatooine, before he abruptly vanished. The brilliant concentration of the Force that represented Anakin Skywalker was rapidly approaching the palace at a pace that meant he had to have picked up a land speeder. "He was fighting Count Dooku when I left him, but I sense he is alright and on his way."

I could see the minute tenseness in her shoulders relax, "Thank you, Padawan Tano, give the General my regards."

"I will, Senator." Her holo vanished as the connection was cut.

Jabba promptly ordered for a table of honour to be brought forward to seat me near his dais and insistently offered me any selection of drinks on the house. The sheer selection his protocol droid offered on the holomenu it brought was staggering considering that some of them were quite rare and to find them out here in the Outer Rim clearly showed the reach of Jabba's smuggling rings. So since I had quite a bit of a sweet tooth I ordered two Quin-Berry Juices.

When Anakin arrived he offered formal greetings and received Jabba's thanks for returning his son, then took a seat at the table with a tired huff. I handed his juice over and after a brief smell, he sipped it carefully.

"Damn, that's sweet."

My own taste buds were in heaven, "So Master, how did you fare against Dooku?"

"Considering the last time we crossed lightsabers I lost an arm, it was a huge improvement, even managed to wound him." He took a sip and gave me a huge smile, "When he tried to play mindgames with me by showing a portable holo of you getting 'defeated' by those electrostaff droids. He was so surprised at how quickly you defeated them that I got past his guard, stabbed his left forearm."

Oh how I wish I could've been there with a camera to immortalize that moment. The _Master_ of Makashi stabbed by a young Djem So user. I in turn related the events I experienced, Ziro's betrayal of Jabba and Senator Amidala's involvement.

"Always getting into trouble," he shook his head with a wry smile.

There was a vibrating sound from Anakin's belt, and he pulled out his holocom.

"Anakin, the _Resolute_ and _Justicar_ has just arrived in orbit. Given your relaxed surroundings I trust everything has gone smoothly?" Obi-wan questioned mildly.

"Yes, Master. Jabba is ready to sign a treaty with the Republic."

"Excellent, I'll be down shortly with the formalized documentation. Kenobi out."

Anakin raised his glass to me, and I tapped my own against it, "Here's to friendly relations with the Hutts. Never thought I'd see the day."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Star Wars is owned by Disney. Campaign for them to revoke the Gaming IP rights from EA!**

 **Chapter 4**

If there was one misconception the layman had about life in the military was that it was one exciting adventure after another. They had no idea of the sheer amount of work, planning and logistics that went into getting that single ARC fighter into space in working condition, or how long that clone pilot had drilled and trained for. They had no idea of the amount of effort that went into building a single Venator class Star Destroyer, nor how much work it was to keep it running in combat readiness, keep its seven thousand four hundred crew fed and everything that went along with that. The protocols and checklists that had to ticked and done, or else risk disaster when that one system wasn't working properly, which could lead to something critical breaking down, which could cost lives. That didn't even cover what could happen during combat.

It was some miracle that the Grand Army of the Republic had inherited the institutional knowledge of starship combat and shipbuilding that dated all the way back to the Great Sith War - which was kept alive in the training and archives of the old Judicial Forces and Jedi Archives.

In my previous life, I had been a citizen soldier and reservist, never going higher than the local equivalent of a basic Clone trooper first class, so when I was literally thrust into the officer slot of a Commander, there was nothing to fall back on except by what I could dig out of Jedi Archives. Everything that a Commander had to know, I had to know as well, and the amount of studying that required was daunting to say the least. It was at least the equivalent of studying a military degree of 4 years, and be expected to do the job on the fly. Thank goodness that there were Jedi techniques of enhancing memory recall and cognition. At the rate I was studying I could probably consider myself qualified for the role - knowledge wise - within a year or so.

But as I was now 'General' Skywalker's second in command, that meant I was also required to attend all these wonderful strategic planning meetings, and guess who was given the task of officially logging these into the Republic database.

I was seated next to Anakin in the main briefing hall of the _Resolute_ , where Admiral Yularen was conducting the session. The air above us was filled with a giant hologram of the galaxy, which at a gesture from the Admiral, was coloured to show the current strategic picture.

Separatist space was coloured in purple, and the Outer Rim galactic north was basically covered in it, along with a few slices of the southern galactic Outer Rim. Republic space was red, and covered the core, mid rim and expansion regions in the centre to the south. The galactic east was of course, dominated in the green of Hutt space. Everything else was left gray to indicate neutral space.

"With Hutt space now open to our fleets we are launching a flanking offensive campaign using the Boz Pity System as our main staging area. This will open a second front and in theory should drain the main Separatist Perlemian defence line of units and perhaps allow for a break through. The main problem as always is logistics, before our fleets can push forward with confidence, we need to establish supply bases along our axis of advance. The _Resolute_ and Task Group Twelve are on convoy escort duty."

I inwardly groaned at the thought. That meant escorting bulk freighters - giant behemoth ships that could carry entire factories, bulk supplies, ammunition, spare parts, power supplies, fighters and even small destroyers and cruisers within their cavernous megaton holds, everything a military campaign needed. They had powerful shields, but they were as slow as molasses in normal space and hyperspace - relative to a dedicated combat fleet.

"It is more than likely that the enemy will know we are coming, and will not care that they are blundering into Hutt space to engage us. So we can't expect escorting these convoys will be easy."

Hutt space was an odd duck in the history of the Galaxy, their influence waxed and waned throughout thousands of years, their space growing then shrinking, but they had always managed to stay out of the grand galactic wars against the Sith empires of old. After the last Great Sith War a thousand years ago, and the Ruusan Reformation of the Republic, Hutt space had practically ballooned in the galactic east. Yet, you could never point at the Hutts and claim they held their space because of fleets or any sort of true force projection. It was seemingly their economic and 'underworld' muscle that let them hold onto their space, and by the fact that the worlds they chose to develop in their space were not attractive at all to general human or humanoid alien life.

That was the reason why the Republic wanted a Treaty with Jabba. Sure we could've just charged right through, but we'd have to watch our back constantly to secure any Republic assets from the sponsored privateers that the Hutts would throw at our ships, bases or garrisons. Not to mention the army of criminal 'scum' they could sponsor to make the lives of everyone in the Core worlds utterly miserable.

The Admiral further outlined our rendezvous with a convoy in the Manaan system, where we would begin the escort duty, through a zigzag course going galactic east, entering Hutt space near Chalacta, then turning north and Boz Pity as the final destination. Whereupon we would open the new front. Similar convoys would be taking different hyperspace routes and vary their emergence into normal space as much as possible.

Our Task Group's course and escort would take nearly two weeks to finally reach Boz Pity - well, at least I could keep up with my training, studies and a pet project or two.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker paced back and forth on the upper command Bridge of the _Resolute_ , hands clenched behind his back, within which was a datapad. He had to suppress the near reflex urge he felt like sending to his cybernetic right arm to crush the damn thing. The report it contained seemed like a verbatim copy of the twelve that had come previously over the past nine days.

The campaigns into the Separatist north had seemed to be going well. Then ships had started to miss scheduled check ins with the central command. Scouts sent to trace the missing ships along their last known route would also go missing. Thus far, seven _Venators,_ two _Acclamators_ and eight scouts in various classes of ship - ranging from hyper capable fighters to small frigates had just seemingly vanished.

Yet the Jedi Council saw fit to keep going without any change in fleet posture at all.

He decided to turn his frustration into something positive and headed off the bridge to find his Padawan - it was about time for their daily lightsaber practice anyway. He had to admit that it was nothing like he imagined it would be. She took in everything he taught, as Obi-Wan had taught him, but was not afraid to challenge those teachings when she disagreed with them.

She enjoyed lightsaber instruction but found the pure physical exercises he set her to complete with Rex a challenge to push through. It was about the only thing she grumbled about doing but persevered nevertheless. In other respects she was utterly self-sufficient, way more than he remembered being at fourteen years old and giving Obi-Wan headaches with his teenage antics.

Outside the Bridge he summoned an MSE-4 mouse droid and directed it to home in on Ashoka's com link. He could have just called and summoned her to the hangar, but he wanted to do a bit of discreet observation of her day-to-day activities. He generally knew where her duties took her during a standard day aboard the _Resolute_ but it was off-duty hours that he was curious about.

So he was rather surprised to see the droid eventually leading him to the very noisy indoor shooting ranges that the 501st utilized for target practice. There were two rather cramped ranges that the _Resolute_ offered its embarked soldiers. One was a standard fifty meter stationary course with shooting lanes and stationary targets, the second was an open plan range that sent hovering remote drones to simulate moving targets that shot back at you.

Ahsoka was seated in the middle of the latter shooting range, wearing her conformal armor, legs folded underneath her in classic meditation position, above her head a small cloud of drones were hovering and moving in random patterns. Surrounding her further in a fifteen meter circle were a squad of clone troopers who were attempting to shoot the drones. The drones would zip to and fro and evade, eventually sending stun bolt back to the trooper, who failed to dodge in time and yelped at the pain it produced, causing him to briefly collapse to the floor.

Feeling utterly baffled he extended his senses through the Force towards his padawan. _Oh she's controlling the remote's flight completely and triggering them to shoot via Technometry_ , he thought. As an exercise in telekinesis it was complex and utterly overkill for what was even required to pass muster as a Jedi Knight, perhaps even Mastery, yet here she was doing it. She was also oddly radiating and holding the Force in a large sphere around herself in a way that seemed to be doing nothing at all.

She raised her hands and all the remotes fell to the floor, and opened her eyes, "Sorry boys, but that's where we have to end for today it seems."

The clones gave good natured grumbles and laughs before they noticed him and stiffened to attention.

"At ease, at ease," he assured the men, who from their markings seemed to be from Alpha company. "So what has my padawan been up to with all of you?"

"Just keeping us on our toes, General," said a clone. "She started these exercises with the various companies about a week ago, sir. She controls the drones way better and more unpredictably than the computer, and shoots back when we miss. The only thing we use the range computer for is to keep score."

"I also noticed the power setting on those drones were somewhat high, snips," he commented when she approached.

"It's good motivation to improve, Master. If the troops exercise as if they were in a bloodless battle, then when they _are_ in actual battle it will make them more effective."

"Interesting," Anakin folded his arms and could somewhat see her point. More accurate troopers meant more dead droids not shooting at their fellows and less shots he would have to deflect. "Well, off you go Alpha company, don't let me keep you."

"Yes, sir."

The clones exited the range and he gestured for Ashoka to follow him as they headed down to the hangar bays.

"Something troubling you, Skyguy?" her question broke their companionable silence as they walked.

He held up the datapad, "Another missing ship."

She sighed, "And I take it the scout sent after it vanished as well?"

"Yes. The Separatists are being uncommonly subtle with whatever it is that's causing our ships to vanish. We can't even confirm they've been destroyed."

"Let's look at it this way, Master. What could cause one of our ships to be destroyed so thoroughly that there isn't even a chance to launch distress or destruction beacons?"

"Some new kind of weapon… one that can disintegrate on a ship scale… the energy requirements would be horrendous though… I don't think the galaxy's ever built a hypermatter reactor large enough to do that job. Republic Intelligence would've picked up on the resource shipments for something that big."

Ahsoka shook her head grimly, "That is a frightening thought, Master. But it can't be discounted, space is mind bogglingly vast, and if the Seppies have scouted new hyperspace lanes into unexplored space then...anything is possible. But whatever new weapon they have it's clearly mobile, a new ship class perhaps, mounting a weapon that can hit large ships and small ships in some manner to completely disable them, even the beacon systems that are designed to survive should the ship's reactor explode."

He couldn't find any fault with her reasoning but until they had hard evidence or an eyewitness to this new super ship in action, then it was all just speculation and educated guesses.

"Well, the Council at least has decided to form a small task group under Master Plo Koon whose job it is to solve the mystery." It was rather annoying that they hadn't given the job to _Resolute_ and her group, it'd make a nice change of pace from the boring escort missions.

Ahsoka frowned with worry, "I hope he makes it."

* * *

If there was one trait I shared with the Ahsoka I knew from my past life, then it was my bond and friendship with Plo Koon - the Jedi Master who had discovered me to be Force sensitive. He was like a favored Uncle and I had over the many years of training as a youngling in the Jedi Academy gone to him for advice, help in my studies and Force techniques. It was unfortunately that bond and ' _attachment_ ', that had caused the Council to prevent him from taking me as a Padawan. It had made me really wish at the time that I could just storm into the Council chambers and Gibbs slap the hell out of those crusty old fossils and scream at them to 'wake up' and smell the coffee.

The _Resolute_ had finally completed its initial convoy escort mission to Boz Pity and it had been assigned as one of the various ships that was 'sitting pretty' in a star system guarding the flanks of the offensive, waiting for the Separatists to show their hand. It was utterly stupid waiting for the enemy to come to us, and handing over the initiative.

"General Skywalker, Commander Tano," the Clone Lieutenant in the crew port crew pit of the _Resolute_ 's bridge spoke up, "we're receiving a transmission from Master Plo Koon."

"Put it up," Anakin ordered.

The holoform of the Kel Dor Jedi Master in his customary armored brown robes appeared. Master Plo to the uninformed looked visually frightening, with dark brown, rippling leathery skin, with a near stylish rebreather mask and stippled goggles protecting his eyes from the high oxygen content in the air - which were toxic to Kel Dor. Despite this fearsome visage, Plo Koon was what you would call a 'big softy', and had a heart to match. I sometimes wondered though how he could continue to be sitting on the Jedi Council given its decisions of late - perhaps why he was one of the few Council members actually working on the front lines.

"Master Plo," I bowed to the holo, "glad to see you haven't fallen into the black holes the Seppies are throwing at us."

"Greetings, little Soka," the Kel Dor greeted warmly. "Yes, indeed, and I think I've found the new Separatist ship. We tracked it into the Abregado system and given its size, we will need reinforcements to destroy it."

"The Council has us guarding all the approaches to our staging area Master Plo, I'd need to check in with them first," Anakin shook his head regretfully.

"Destroying this new ship should be top priority, Master, " I pointed out. "Acting like target mynocks for this thing is pointless now that we know where it is."

"I agree," Anakin nodded, "but my orders were specific…"

Plo Koon's holo flickered and vanished after a burst of static. I whirled to the com officer, "What happened there?"

"Transmission cut off at the source, Commander."

"Could it have been jamming?"

"No way to tell, unfortunately."

"Very well," Anakin nodded, "Lieutenant, send a holo conference request, top priority, to the Jedi Council on my authority."

"Yes, sir."

It took another fifteen long minutes to gather what could be called the 'small council', into the conference call. I was somewhat thankful for the time though; I took a deep breath and reeled in my presence in the Force, making myself as unsuspiciously small as possible, then pushed my intentions into a very specific direction, and finally started counting Sabacc hands in my head.

The holograms of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master Mace Windu (Sam Jackson, frak yeah), Grandmaster Yoda appeared, and then with a slight delay, the genteel form of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine in his typical fancy robes with wide brimmed padded shoulders.

"Ah, Master Skywalker," Palpatine smiled genially, "I trust you have an important reason for calling us together?"

"Yes, Chancellor, we've received a report from Master Plo that he's tracked the new Separatist weapon to the Abragado system."

"Hmmm, not much of note about that system at all," Obi-Wan mused while staring off into a computer display, "no inhabitable planets, just a red giant star and asteroid fields."

"Which would make it an ideal hiding place for the weapon between attacks," Mace Windu pointed out.

"Have we heard anything further from General Plo?" Palpatine folded his hands together.

"Nothing since his initial communication, Chancellor. It's highly likely that he's engaged the weapon and that jamming is preventing further contact, or… his fleet is already destroyed, like the others. I'm intending to launch a search and rescue mission."

"Hasn't Intelligence indicated that this weapon leaves no survivors," Palpatine argued.

Obi-Wan's face twisted into a grim line, "the Separatists are being unusually tidy, they don't want any witnesses."

"Tragic are these losses, but prevent more, we must."

"With that in mind all our battle groups must pull back to guard our supply convoys to Boz Pity," Master Windu declared. I wish I still had hair so I could tear it out… _idiots_! "I'm afraid we can't risk any more ships with a rescue mission."

"Understood, we will deploy as instructed," Anakin confirmed.

"May the Force be with you," Yoda declared, before the holo conference winked out.

Anakin headed for the rear CIC of the Bridge where Admiral Yularen was.

"Master Plo is still alive," I declared with certainty.

"How do you know?"

"I have had a Force bond with him since I was found by him as a youngling, Master Skywalker."

Anakin stopped in his tracks. "Really? How strong is it?"

"More than strong enough for this, Master."

He nodded and we continued towards the CIC, "Admiral Yularen, redeploy the fleet, I'll scout ahead for enemy activity."

"Isn't that risky? With that mystery weapon out there?"

"It might be, but we can't afford to let the threat of that thing keep hanging over us. The negative effect on morale this can have cannot be overstated."

"Understood, General." Yularen nodded, "Resolute will be here when you return."

"Come along, snips."

* * *

The G9 light freighter _Twilight_ emerged from the port hangar bay of the _Resolute_. Anakin had taken a liking to the old bucket and had repaired and customized the thing in his off-duty time during the long boring escort duty voyages. It now sported military grade sensors, shields and the black market weapons worked properly. It also had Anakin Skywalker ™ customized vector repulsors that made the thing almost as agile as a fighter.

"Co-ordinates set R2?" Anakin asked.

The droid bleeped a 'yes'. The throttles were pulled and the _Twilight_ shot into hyperspace.

It took barely twenty minutes to reach the edge of the Abragado star's hyper limit with the speed of the _Twilight_ 's new hyperdrive. The ship's cockpit was filled with red light from the star and the massive red orb provided a perfect backdrop to a scene of devastation. Three massive hulks that were barely recognizable as Venator class ships and an extensive debris field that was slowly spreading out as their initial velocities carried them off into the gravitational influence of the local star.

"Anything on scanners, Ahsoka?"

I stared into the screens of the co-pilot's station. It was amazing the difference in resolution and clarity the scanners now had, the only problem was…

"That star's radiation field is making a mess, not to mention the recent explosions of the cruiser's reactors isn't helping."

"So we're reduced to visual scanning, which would take too long and the Force…"

"Right, give me the controls."

Anakin flicked a switch and transferred helm control to my station. I grabbed the yokes and closed my eyes… emerging myself into the river of the Force… _I am one with the Force, the Force is with me, I am one with the Force..._

 _...Master Plo…_

. _..Master Plo… as he is in the Force, in my heart, so am I in his..._

… _there_ … I pushed the throttle forward angled the ship towards the far edge of the debris field...

Large pieces of wreckage now blocked our path, angling and crashing into each other. The Force showed me the path.

The Twilight dove on its z-axis, then shot laterally along the y-axis, deftly avoiding the debris.

... _Master Plo_ …

In the maelstrom of debris... a small life pod. Attached to it was a droid ship that looked like a can-opener with an engine attached. B1 Droids were shooting at the clone troopers, who were tucking themselves to the hull of the pod as much as possible, and returning fire… _there_ … standing in the full vacuum was Master Plo with lit lightsaber, deflecting fire back at the droids. Then using the Force to fling a clone trooper over the lip of the droid ship, allowing perfect shots. He then pulled the trooper back and sliced off the blades of the droid ship that had been threatening to crush the life pod.

Finally another Force push sent the droid ship careening into debris where it was smashed to pieces.

I opened my eyes, "Got them. Over there." I pointed directly ahead and there the pod itself was, with the clones and Master Plo clinging to its surface.

"Well done, snips!" Anakin praised and retook helm control, "Ready the tow cables."

"On it."

I rushed into the rear cargo bay and picked up the tow cable firing gun. The magcon field engaged and the rear doors folded open to the tableau of space and debris before the ship yawed to present its rear towards the life pod. I took careful aim for a nice stable spot on the pod and fired.

The cable landed true and held.

The motor whined as it pulled on the pod's mass but it was successful in giving it enough impetus for a new velocity and heading. I grabbed a hold of a railing as the artificial gravity was temporarily switched off in the cargo bay. The pod emerged into the bay before it was halted with a localised tractor beam. The moment I was sure nobody would be crushed under the thing, I pushed a button on the bay controls and gravity resumed.

The pod slammed to the deck and I winced at the volume of metal meeting metal. The armored clone troopers slid down the edges and collapsed, immediately taking off their helmets and giving relieved smiles. "Damn I hate vac fighting."

I rushed over to where Master Plo was lying, looking rather worse for wear. Kel Dor were one of the few species in the galaxy who could survive the lack of pressure in space, and their rebreathers carried a supply of their natural 'air' with them too. I placed a hand on his brow and winced, it was the temperature spikes that caused spaced Kel Dor to eventually die and the fact that they could not radiate heat, but it seemed Master Plo was already using the Force internally to help with correcting his 'overheating', so to speak.

Anakin gave a gesture behind me to the pod, ripping the front glass panel off and allowing the naval clone officer still inside to gulp in fresh air greedily.

The _Twilight_ 's medical droid bustled in at this point and got to work.

Master Plo finally raised his head, giving me a comforting pat on the shoulder, "Tell me, were there any other survivors?"

"I scanned but… couldn't find anybody else," Anakin reported sadly.

Plo's deep resonating voice was disturbed, "The hunters must have destroyed the rest of the pods."

There really wasn't any words you could say at this point so I just gave the big alien a hug.

* * *

We emerged into the _Twilight'_ s cockpit a few minutes later to hear Master Plo's report on what had happened.

"It took quite a bit of work and calculation to track the Separatist ship down, but finally I was able to narrow it to this system given the times and positions of our ships that had gone missing." Anakin and I took our respective seats at the controls. "That is when we finally laid eyes on it. A massive new class of ship easily five times the size of a _Venator_ , armed with two massive Ion Cannons set into its port and starboard broadsides, along with banks of turbolasers that number over five hundred. It neutralized all power to our ships and shields had no effect in protecting us."

"So it scrambled out the ship's power systems completely, that's why no beacons were going off either," Anakin nodded in understanding. "But how was a ship that large also targeting small ships?"

"This Ion cannon is also unique in that it doesn't just shoot a distinct bolt of energy, but rather it's a wave like area of effect weapon. So long as you are within the ship's broadside arcs you are vulnerable."

A proximity alarm drew our attention and I blinked at the size of the incoming ship, "There's a five kilometer long ship that just emerged out of hyperspace."

Plo Koon didn't hesitate and rushed to the ship controls, "Shut down everything before they detect us."

Between all three of us flicking switches and controls the _Twilight_ was soon drifting in space like a piece of debris. I pushed off my chair in the sudden zero gee and glided over to where R2 was. "Sorry little guy, but we need you to go to bed for a little while." I used the Force, reaching into R2s internals and flicked the hidden switch. The blue lights on the astromech faded. I keyed the door and floated down the corridor back to the cargo bay, and with another Force application of Technometry, shut down the medical droid as well.

"Good thinking, Ahsoka," Master Plo said when I had returned and gestured out the viewport, "have a look."

When I could finally see the giant heavy cruiser it was an awesome sight to behold. It was like a giant dagger set against the dark red backdrop of the sun. "That is one big ass ship."

"Yes, which will not be easy to destroy, even if those Ion Cannons weren't in the equation. From the brief sensor readings we could take before the battle, it has shields and armor of comparable strength to an orbital defense weapons platform."

"We'd need nearly four task groups to make even a dent in that," Anakin shook his head incredulously.

The great ship reduced speed and started to slowly cruise above the plane of the debris field.

"They lost contact with the hunter team, so they're scanning for them," I reasoned.

"We just have to sit still long enough until they conclude that the hunters must have had an accident in the debris field. Their sensors will be as degraded as ours were out here."

"I'll go back and check on the troopers in the meantime."

* * *

Jedi Master Plo Koon sat patiently in the co-pilot seat, and using the crash webbing to keep himself anchored onto its surface. Ahsoka vanished beyond the cockpit door and he eyed her new Master. While he would never admit it aloud, he knew himself and there was a slight feeling of envy in his heart that he couldn't help. He knew the reasons that he couldn't have taken Ahsoka as a padawan, and they were good ones, very logical but the heart and the mind on matters such as this rarely agreed. He loved that girl like a daughter, and it was precisely that fact which stood in the way.

"How are you faring with Ahsoka as your padawan, Skywalker?"

The young Jedi Knight's eyes narrowed briefly in thought, "It's been an eye opening experience, Master Plo. She's definitely nothing like I was as that age and her mind goes in very unexpected directions."

Plo nodded, "Yes, on Dorin we call a person like her ' _ira fe_ ', old soul, is the best rough translation."

"I admit… there are times when I feel hardly like a Master at all to her, except when it comes to the lightsaber arts."

"Don't feel too bad about it Skywalker. Ahsoka's focus since she was a youngling was into the mysteries and knowledge of the Force - there's a good reason why her lightsaber blades are green. I imagine her one day becoming one of the foremost and powerful Jedi Consulars of her generation."

"But why assign a Padawan like her to me?"

Plo smiled widely enough so it would be visible beyond his rebreather, "One should never stop learning Skywalker. Mastery in any art is just formal recognition from peers that you have achieved a certain level of knowledge, can you really say you have learned _everything_? Have you ever heard Master Yoda say that he knows _everything_?"

"Of course not."

"In teaching, you learn as well. Can you see now why?"

Skywalker was quiet for a few moments, staring out the viewport, "We're meant to complement each other, her knowledge of the Force, my martial skill with a blade?"

"That is one reason," Plo admitted, "there are others, but that you must discover for yourself."

* * *

We had to wait nearly half an hour for the Separatist heavy cruiser to leave the system, but we didn't immediately return to the _Resolute_. I had convinced Anakin to try a little trick I remembered from Star Trek. Any ship that could go faster than light speed, was in effect, a time machine. All that you had to do, was outrun the light and you'd see what had happened in the past. In this case, we travelled with a micro hyperspace jump thirty three light minutes outside the Abragado system and using the various scanners of the _Twilight_ , could record the emissions of the enemy ship - and given that it was so big, with a truly monstrous energy profile, and after the red giant's light was filtered out, it allowed for excellent electronic intelligence to be gathered.

Anakin even took the idea further and had R2 program a further microjump that allowed us to see and record the emissions of the Ion Cannon being fired at Master Plo's fleet and the one sided battle that followed, the resolution at that range was pretty crap, but it was way more than we had beforehand. With that done we headed into hyperspace again for rendezvous with the fleet.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** _Gosh, an update! Just in time for Star Wars Celebration! This has been lingering unfinished for a while on my drive. Finally paid attention to it after the PTSD The Last Jedi caused and subsequent Lucasfilm BS towards the Star Wars franchise had faded enough into the background, and the truly excellent Star Wars Theory's "Vader Episode 1: Shards of the Past" fan film had fanned the flames of my fandom for this franchise. Go to Youtube, support his channel, donate a few bucks so he can get Episode 2 made. The poor deluded passion-less fools at Lucasfilm living in their echo chambers can 'officially' butcher the GFFA universe as much as they want - we the fans, will carry the torch in our own imaginations and those of us with the means and talent will make fan films and other media to carry the story forward._

 **Chapter 5**

"Pilots of Shadow Squadron, say hello to the _Malevolence_ ," I gestured and R2 projected the ugly ship in full holographic high definition glory to the neatly aligned seats in the port side hangar bay, which was filled with clone pilots. I had been given the task of conducting the briefing by Anakin, who wanted to see how I coped by slowly introducing more command responsibilities on my shoulders slowly but surely. "This is the newly declared flagship of the entire Separatist Fleet, and it's our job to hunt it down and destroy it."

It really irked me that despite the fact that we had ID'd the damn thing and its capabilities without the Seppies knowing, then of course, the instant it went to the Jedi Council and the Chancellor's office, the Separatists knew that we knew - and acted accordingly, so we therefore lost the element of strategic surprise. Palpatine probably had a heart attack when he saw the intel scans of the Malevolence cross his desk so soon. So predictably he had ordered Dooku to order Grievious to stop tip-toeing around and bulldoze Republic shipping openly to get as much mileage as possible.

"To that end our task force, consisting of the _Resolute_ , _Justicar_ and _Freedom_ , was commissioned by the Senate for this task. With the majority of the fleet engaged in the front line battlespaces, we'll be unable to immediately request reinforcements. The reason you're here Shadow Squadron, is because while our capital ships are vulnerable to the enemy's new weapon, a squad of Y-Wing bombers are small and nimble enough to evade the ion wave. Your target will be the Bridge," a gesture from my hand had the holo zoom in on the utterly moronic position of the command bridge, on a curved tower jutting out of the main hull near the aft section, "and General Grievous himself."

The clone pilots were visibly astonished and even excited at the prospect. Killing that cyborg would be a nice feather in anyone's cap.

"If Grievous is killed it could theoretically shorten the war and with the Bridge out of action and its combat effectiveness greatly reduced, should allow for our capital ships to engage it effectively without the Ion cannon coming into play. We only have a general heading for the _Malevolence_ at the moment, and the entire sector is on alert, so make sure to have your bombers ready to go at a moment's notice when we narrow down its location. Understood?... Dismissed."

The pilots surged to their feet and headed off in the direction of the ranks of parked Y-wings.

"Not bad, Snips," Anakin said, coming to stand next to me.

"Indeed, Ashoka," Master Plo affirmed. "Master Skywalker, this is an aggressive plan. Are you sure this squadron can complete the mission?"

"Shadow squadron hasn't had a single failure in its record and the lowest casualty rate of any squadron in the task group," Anakin affirmed.

"Usually because you're flying with them, _Master_ , so not exactly fair on the others, is it?" I gave him a teasing grin.

"It is what it is," he shrugged it off.

"Minimal casualties may be enough to prevent you from breaking Grievious' defenses," Master Plo warned.

"He has a point, Master, I'd bet that Bridge has redundant secondary and tertiary shielding, extra armor, not to mention the highest density of flak and turbolasers... at least it's what I'd do if I was forced to command a ship from that exposed position."

"With the amount of firepower we're packing into the bombers, we'll destroy that Bridge no matter what defenses he throws our way. Now go on, get your flight suit."

"Yes, Master."

* * *

Actually finding the _Malevolence_ was proving rather annoying for the crews of the Task Force, whose ELINT divisions were working overtime on sifting through the galactic information highway that was the Holonet. Or trawling through hyperspace communication bands listening for encrypted Seperatist signals or even simply monitoring Republic broadcasts and signals for any report on the enemy flagship being sighted. In the meantime Shadow Squadron plus Anakin, Master Plo and myself were on standby to launch, and I discovered the true meaning of the old Earth military adage "Hurry up and wait."

It did allow us the time to perform simulations of attack runs on the _Malevolence_ , but there's only so much of that you could do and not compromise your own readiness by tiring yourself out. So after only an hour in the simulators we were back in the hangar bays, wearing flight suits and waiting... and waiting.

Of course, I spent the time meditating as did Master Plo, Anakin spent the time tweaking his bomber to his own personal specifications and calibrations. Of course, it was also 'our' bomber, as I would be seated in the top turret gunner position of his Y-Wing - I had yet to figure out any rationale why Rebellion model Y-Wings used in the future would do away with that turret.

It really irked me that I was so close to the old fantasy of flying a starfighter, yet so far. On the other hand I was rather glad, because a Y-Wing was my least favorite snubfighter. X-Wings were as yet not even a gleam in any Incom designer's eye yet. I didn't like the current design of Jedi Starfighters, despite their similarity to future A-Wings, as they were too compact and relied on the external Hyperspace Ring attachment to fly interstellar. The closest I'd get to X-Wing levels of performance at the moment would be a Z-95 Headhunter and they were not into full production yet.

Then at last, after six hours of waiting, word reached the Task Force.

"The Malevolence has attacked a convoy of medical transports near Ryndellia," Admiral Yularen reported to the squadron as we all quickly wolfed down a meal from ration packs.

"Ryndellia is near Naboo," Anakin frowned in thought, keying his portable holo to show that sector of space. "Hang on, that's near where our medical base is for the Southern galactic front lines. If Grievous knocks out that base, we'd be forced to ship wounded clones all the way back to the Core, Corellia would be the closest, and that means way more casualties due to the travel time."

"There are many star clusters in that area," Master Plo said, studying the holomap, "from Ryndillia to the medical base and given the size of that ship - the _Malevolence_ would have to fly a course..." he poked his long claw like finger into the holo and dragged a rough approximation through it.

"I agree," Anakin nodded, "for us to intercept Grievous before he can reach the med station, we'd need to hyperspace to the edge of this nebula, fly through it at sublight, then perform another jump."

"I take it the med station was put there because the nebula made astronavigation difficult?"

"Exactly," Anakin confirmed.

"Then I'll ask the question I hope is being asked somewhere, how in the Universe does Grievous know the position of that station? Its in the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking."

I knew the answer of course, but I wanted other people to start asking hard questions that would have old Palpy running damage control and start to tax that infamous 'Foresight' that the Emperor would always boast about.

"That's a good question, Snips, but not one we ourselves can worry about at the moment." Anakin pressed a few keys on his com band, "Shadow squadron, man your ships. We launch in five."

* * *

Describing my first proper experience in a fighter outside of a simulator, and in the gunner seat of a Y-Wing, I can confidently say I know what being a goldfish feels like. I had a custom designed helmet that was almost like something straight out of the old Jetsons comics, to accommodate my lekku and montrals. The flight suit was essentially a full space suit as well, that maintained pressure via mechanical pressure on the body instead of air, meaning it allowed for a much tighter fit, and it's what the clones wore underneath their armor. The difference being that a space suit also had tiny thrusters. The turret was also cramped, I could only move my arms about somewhat freely to handle the co-pilot systems and the guns, but my legs had barely a few centimeters of wiggle room.

" _I hope you know what you're doing Anakin_ ," Obi-Wan commented on the com system from the bridge of the _Justicar_.

"Well, if I don't, I won't be around to hear the 'I told you so'," Anakin replied sarcastically, as he flicked a few switches and moved the Y-Wing into a tighter formation.

 _"That's reassuring, well, take your shortcut, we'll take the long way but you better be there before I arrive._ "

The task force's arrowhead forms was steadily growing smaller in the blackness of space.

"I'll be there, Obi-Wan." He switched channels to the squadron frequency. "Shadow Squadron, tighten formation, call in."

 _"Shadow Two, ready."_

 _"Three, ready."_

And on it went until all twelve had signalled and finally, _"Fighter escort, standing by."_ Master Plo in his Hyperspace Ringed Jedi Starfighter fell into the rear of the diamond formation.

"Confirmed, Shadow squadron. All navicomputers are synchronized. Green across the board."

 _"Shadow Squadron, you are clear to depart, good hunting,"_ Admiral Yularen commed.

"Thank you, sir. All right boys, let's go."

Anakin pushed on the small throttle lever and the fighters' engines whined with the hyperdrive motivator, and all around me the stars were drawn into long lines as the Y-Wing plunged into the twisting blue vortex of a stable hyperspace tunnel. It was quite mesmerizing due to my elevated position and the fact that the only thing separating me from hyperspace itself was the transparent canopy of my turret.

"Time to reversion forty minutes."

* * *

When Shadow Squadron emerged from hyperspace the entire view was dominated by the nebula. It was a roiling cloud of interstellar gas filled with colours of earthy browns, reds, and even the occasional swirling blue - meaning we were about to fly through a real witches brew cocktail of bromine, nitrogen dioxide and dichlorine monoxide. I had quite enjoyed all the 'space' subjects taught at the Academy - astrophysics among them. This nebula's current dimensions made it one of the smaller ones you could find in the galaxy, being only slightly wider than a single AU, though the particle density was higher than the norm. It's relative length and height though was what made it a 'wall' for hyperspace astronavigation in the sector.

"Okay, if we can navigate through this shortcut, we should make it in good time."

"We should remain alert, this nebula's interior has not been explored," warned Master Plo.

"You'd think that they would at least send in probes before putting the med station next door it," I pointed out.

"Not if they'd wanted to keep the location totally secret, Ashoka."

At that point the view was entirely swallowed by the nebula and the stars vanished. The squadron's passage left a visible contrail now, the heat of the engines causing the gasses shift into a higher energy state. Thankfully that didn't mean it'd go boom.

"This soup is thick, can you see anything?" Shadow Two questioned.

"Just keep your eyes on my thruster, Shadow Two," Anakin ordered.

I powered up the fighter's scanners and stared at the small readout scope, "Well, I can tell us what we're flying through out to twenty thousand kilometers, Master, but beyond that we'll have to navigate with the Force."

"Already on it, Snips."

"I always know where I'm going," Shadow Three boasted.

"Oh yeah, where's that, Broadside?" Shadow Two 'Matchstick' snarked in return.

"I'm going to blow up that battleship."

"A clear path if ever there was one," Master Plo agreed with amusement.

The squadron kept accelerating for over twenty minutes before Anakin had to call them to pull the throttles back to 'neutral', lest the nebula overwhelm the particle shielding. Yet another rather large inconsistency was that the Laws of Physics regarding inertia, gravity and so on did indeed apply in the GFFA as well. Fighters and starships in space didn't just magically 'stop' and start or fly as if they were aircraft in an atmosphere - space battles in the old Star Wars media was simply the 'Rule of Cool' in action.

Starships and fighters needed to match velocities and courses to be able to engage one another. The complex calculations and speed adjustments to achieve that is precisely why astromech droids existed, in addition to hyperspace computations.

I checked the nav feed from R2, the little droid was patiently sitting ensconced in his slot, its domed head tracking back and forth as it studied the nebula cloud formations. The squadron's base velocity relative was a fifth of lightspeed at the moment, meaning we'd clear the nebula in forty two minutes.

Thankfully I'd brought some reading along to pass the time. I'd downloaded a few books onto a data slate, both fiction and non-fiction, the latter being mostly about starships this time. I was especially interested in the fact that Cloaking Devices existed, yet they didn't seem to be as widely used as they should. An issue of Alder's Guide to Starships of the Galaxy published ten years ago on Corellia illuminated the subject though.

Cloaking Devices put a number of constraints on a ship's design that made it rather unattractive for general military use. The power requirements meant that you couldn't cloak and have your other systems such as weapons, engines, shields and hyperdrive fully online as well. The power draw also meant that only ships with strong enough hypermatter reactors could power it. The smallest ship that could therefore mount the thing was a frigate, with Kuat Drive Yards managing to slap a Cloaking device onto a Pelta Class frigate. It also forced you to use a specially treated hull and therefore made the entire prospect extraordinarily expensive. That was as far as the rest of the Galaxy knew, but I also knew of Darth Maul's _Scimitar_ , a secretly modified Star Courier with cloaking tech, that he'd used to get around during the Naboo Blockade and the beginning of the Saga.

Sadly it was firmly in the hands of Palpatine at the moment, who used the thing to travel in secret in his alternate Sith persona.

Even so, I knew cloaked ships were going to be crucial to the future.

The nebula began to thin and given the speed we were going at, vanished abruptly from around us and we could see stars in front of us again.

"All right, we are clear," Anakin confirmed, "hyperspace in three... two... one..."

The hyperspace tunnel would only surround us for another five minutes before we emerged within visual range of the Med Station.

It was a space station of the Haven class - which was one of the bits of rather ostentatious Republic engineering, as if you looked 'down' on its dorsal side, it was shaped to look like the Republic emblem. The benefit of it though was that it allowed for numerous ships to dock at the outer tiers of the station, allowing large amounts of potential passengers and patients to be embarked or sent off at once. Which was a good thing, as every dock collar was currently being used by transport and medical frigates from the Republic and Naboo ships, frantically trying to evacuate before the _Malevolent_ would arrive.

My scanners started lighting up like a christmas tree.

"Hyperspace emergence! It's massive."

Seeing the massive bulk of the _Malevolence_ in person again, shooting through space and coming to a relative halt was distinctly eerie. For something that big to move so fast was utterly quite terrifying. The sheer amount of conventional firepower it had was difficult to appreciate. It was a mere two hundred kilometers from the station and its massive rear blisters of engines lit up to begin maneuvers.

"Shadow squadron," Anakin declared grimly, "on me, full acceleration."

I felt the Y-Wing's engines roar to full power and rotated my guns towards the direction of the Malevolence. The squadron was, by unlucky circumstance of our emergence points, a few thousand kilometers from the enemy, and while we could intercept, we were too far away to even try to prevent the Malevolence from attacking the fleeing transports.

The enemy flagship put its starboard side facing the transports, then the massive circular emitter of the Ion Wave Cannon began glowing, and steadily became brighter, then not twenty seconds later, it reached a blinding peak before firing. The wave was more like a faint expanding discus, that writhed with ion energy and arced with purple and blue hues.

The wave's speed was quite slow for anything that could be called a 'cannon' but it easily outstripped the transports and washed over them, leaving behind only faint sparks dancing along their hulls. The ship's lights began flickering, and then we watched helplessly as over three hundred turbolasers rendered the five disabled transports into expanding clouds of debris and plasma. Just like that, nearly eighteen hundred lives were gone. The sheer range of those turbolasers was stupendous - the _Malevolence_ had pummeled the transports at effectively double the range a Republic Venator Star Destroyer could.

"Contacts, enemy vulture droids on an intercept!" I inwardly blanched at the number of them.

Grievious had thrown thirty six fighters at us.

"All wings take evasive action, but stay on intercept. Deflectors double front, equalize as they pass."

I submerged into the flow of the Force and began taking extreme range potshots that managed to destroy two fighters. Then they were in range where the clone pilots and gunners tried their luck, blanketing the space ahead of us with blue energy bolts - felling a further five fighters before we had to evade to avoid collisions. I swiveled the guns around, sending five shots into the void that sent three more fighters flying off in pieces.

Shadow Squadron proved its mettle and accuracy though, with the eleven other gunners each managing a kill in short order, while Master Plo scored three kills on the trot in a graceful turn. The intentions behind even launching the vulture fighters became clear when the Malevolence brought its Ion Cannon to bear on us, flashing with energy and soon enough another circular nimbus of energy was heading our way.

"Incoming!"

"Bank to the edge of the wave, now!" Shadow Squadron pulled up in a near perfect display of formation flying shooting upwards on the z-axis and I winced as I heard Anakin kick in the Y-Wing engines into overcharge mode and even redlined the reactor. "Give it everything you've got!"

It was really weird to fight in space... now the space station, _Malevolence_ and the approaching ion wave was 'below' us from our point of view and I was strained against the crash webbing as the acceleration was creeping past the inertial dampeners ability to compensate. An alarm on my panel drew my attention…

"Shadow Two, your reactor is going critical! Relax your burn!"

"I can make it..."

I felt Matchstick and his gunner's lives wink out abruptly and his Y-Wing exploded in brief flash of liberated energy. The pieces of wreckage swept past us as the energy of the reactor release pushed them faster away.

Shadow Three and Four frantically maneuvered to avoid the debris, but Shadow Five didn't react fast enough and I felt their deaths as a larger piece of wreckage smashed right through the front of the fighter.

The Ion Wave swept past us and Anakin turned the Y-Wing back on intercept with the Malevolence.

"Who did we lose, Ashoka?"

I surveyed the squadron status display. "We lost Matchstick, Tagg, Shadows six, seven and ten were caught in the wave." The ship was now filling the view ahead and anti-fighter flak and plasma erupted from the beast to meet us. "This is not going to work anymore, Master."

"We can make it, Ashoka." His voice was filled with a grim determination that would be admirable in any other situation.

"Master, this mission would be a reasonable gamble if we had a full squadron, but we're _not_ going to break the bridge defenses with just eight bombers. The flak fire will reduce our numbers even further." The squadron was belly to belly with the Malevolence, now so close, it was a massive horizon of grey steel to our eyes. "If we disable the ship's Ion Cannons, it allows for a conventional attack on the ship. Look at the sensors, both port and starboard cannons share the same power conduits and main reactor, hit one side just as its charging up to fire..."

"She's correct, Skywalker, we will face Grievous another day, there's too much at stake now," Master Plo stated as he twirled his fighter ahead of the squadron, sending blasts into the static flak turret defenses to thin them out.

I saw Anakin eventually nod his head, "Shadow Squadron, new target, starboard Ion cannon. Sending coordinates."

"Confirmed Shadow Lead."

The massive superstructure of the _Malevolence_ seemed to spin around us as we maneuvered, then it was above my head, my focus flowing through the moment and the Force. I started to send blasts from my guns at every enemy turret that I could target as quickly as possible, even to the point where I had to begin pacing my shots more as I was running the capacitors down. The remainder of the squadron joined suit as they fought for their lives against the storm of enemy fire.

We lost another Y-Wing before we could plunge into the relatively narrow space between the emitter ring of the Ion Cannon and the main hull of the enemy ship. It was extremely nerve wracking as we waited the nine seconds for the cannon to charge - casting an eerie purple-blue glow over all the instruments in my turret.

"Fire NOW!"

The Y-Wing vibrated hard as torpedoes were shot out from the bomber as fast the launchers could cycle. The squadron emptied their launchers completely, and I released a breath I didn't know I was even holding as the fighter blasted away under full acceleration after getting clear of the weapon.

I knew better than to look at what was coming and it was eerie to merely see the flashes of the proton explosions. I only dared turn my turret around when we were more than a hundred kilometers away from the _Malevolence_.

"Now that is a pretty sight," one of clone pilots commented.

The giant Seperatist ship was yawing awkwardly as damaged thrusters misfired, and most importantly, the circular structures of the Ion Cannons were both utterly wrecked and twisted into a pretzel. Secondary explosions had also erupted here and there, but I had to give the Seperatists their due, the ship was well engineered. Scans showed that despite the feedback of the aborted Ion wave and damage from the torpedoes, that the main reactor had scrammed successfully and distributed backups were already kicking in all around the massive ship.

We were over a thousand kilometers away when the sensors gave a warning of incoming ships from hyperspace and I subtly shook a fist of victory when the arrow shaped forms of Obi-Wan's task group of Star Destroyers shot into view and began a hard burn for the Malevolence.

The enemy ship turned and began its own burn into a retreat, its backups were clearly not enough to push a ship that size into Hyperspace.

" _Good work, Shadow Squadron_ ," Master Plo praised over the squadron frequency.

" _Anakin, do you copy?_ " I smirked in amusement at a tiny note of worry I heard in Obi-wan's voice even through the crackling radio comms.

"I'm here."

" _Congratulations, it looks like your mission was a success._ "

"Partially," Anakin reported grimly, "we destroyed the Ion Cannon, but Grievous is still alive on that ship, and the battle was hard on my men. Open up a bay for us and deploy Search and Rescue for our disabled fighters."

" _Being done as we speak_. _I'll take it from here._ "

"Good, be with you shortly, Obi-wan."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Anakin and I emerged onto the main bridge of the _Justicar_. The ship was an orderly bustle with the sights and sounds of a battle in progress; the red lights of general quarters, clone technicians rushing to and fro in damage control groups. Obi-wan, Master Plo and Admiral Yularen were standing at the front viewport eyeing the distant form of the _Malevolence_ as it presented its massive blisters of rear engines towards us. The blue bolts of anti-capital turbolasers from the three Republic Star Destroyers streaked towards the enemy ship in a constant rain.

"Commander, what is the damage level of the enemy ship?" Obi-wan questioned to the senior officer of the sensor control pit.

"She's lost her primary shields, hyperdrive and main reactor is still in scram mode, but the Seppies didn't skimp on armor. She's taking all our fire with no further appreciable damage being done, except to secondary or tertiary systems. At this extreme range, our turbolasers are losing a great deal of effectiveness."

Obi-wan turned to the navigation pit, "Lieutenant, is there nothing you can do?"

"Sorry General," another clone officer shook his head, "we've near redlined our engines and the reactors are at one hundred and five percent. The only reason they aren't accelerating away from us is their level of battle damage. If they got their main reactor back online they could simply leave us in the proverbial dust, sir."

That was the glaring problem with the Republic Navy and the _Venator_ Destroyer. It was primarily a carrier for fighters, that was also a big gun ship and ground troop transport. That flexibility was a strength, but it also had the glaring weakness of the old saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none.' The _Malevolence_ was essentially a dreadnaught, gunned up to the gills, shielded and seemingly over-armored, and designed to chase down ships by also being over-engined for its mass. A glance at the _Justicar_ 's main ship status holo projected for the whole bridge to see, also indicated another rapidly approaching problem.

Our relative speed to the rest of the universe was also ticking up. We would soon reach our theoretical sublight speed limit dictated by the strength of our particle shielding; space was empty yes, but not completely, atoms of various elements, dust and so on became deadly at fractional velocities of light. I had the distinct feeling that the _Malevolence'_ s particle shields also outclassed ours, simply because of the sheer power and mass they had available to play with on that monster ship.

"We must summon reinforcements at once that can hyper to an intercept at a much closer range," Master Plo declared.

And there was yet another demonstration of the time period I had found myself reincarnated to. The technique and the technology to 'micro-jump' had not been pioneered yet. The computing power for the on-the-fly calculations required and precision hyperdrive motivators wasn't even an idea in any R&D division in the galaxy yet.

"Anakin, were you able to contact Master Luminara?" Obi-wan queried.

"Yes Master, she's busy with Seperatist reinforcements nearby, probably units intended to help their flagship out of this mess, so she won't be able to give us support until she's turned them away."

"Well, until then we'll have to make do. Commander, refine your targeting solutions, have your gunners concentrate fire on the enemy bridge. Leave our two sister ships firing into the bulk of the enemy."

"Yes, sir."

"That's a very small target at this range," Anakin pointed out.

Obi-wan shrugged, reflexively combing his short beard with his hand, "Force willing, we might kill Grievous, if he's still even on that bridge."

Anakin shook his head, "Master, we have Grievous and the flagship, _right there_ , they will be effecting repairs as we speak. I don't think we can afford to wait for Master Luminara's fleet, nor can we afford to let this ship escape."

"What are you suggesting then, General Skywalker?" Master Plo asked.

"Our fighters can't survive launching at our current speed, but the _Twilight_ has strong enough particle shielding and the acceleration to overhaul the _Malevolence_ , combined with their battle damage that is playing havoc with their external sensor coverage, we can lead a sabotage team over there."

"Been tinkering in our spare time have we?" Obi-wan teased. Anakin merely glared in a good-natured manner in response. "Very well, since we're dealing with Grievous himself, it'd be best to keep the team small. You and I will go, along with R2 for droid support."

I really wanted to speak up and volunteer as well, but I wasn't ready to fight Grievous. I was still tinkering with some improvements to my armor in preparation for that inevitable day, and dealing with the spinny four-arm lightsaber saw trick was also something I was working on. Though I had the distinct feeling that if Obi-wan really wanted me along, he'd have asked and even if I demonstrated I could contend with that cyborg, he wouldn't go for it; as it was common sense to not put so many Jedi, and a large portion of the senior command structure, into one small ship that could be blasted out of the sky.

"Be careful, Masters. Remember there's no telling what lethal technological tricks Grievous can engineer into himself," I warned them seriously. The level of modularity that the cyborg had was frankly ridiculous, about the only irreplaceable parts that I remember was his head and upper body, which contained the life support systems.

Anakin nodded, "We'll be careful, snips." He and Obi-wan hurried off the bridge in a jog.

Master Plo placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, "Don't worry Ahsoka."

I nodded but it was a hard thing to achieve; the list of lethal and deadly tech I could imagine, even to a Jedi - then with a bit of fabricator droid help - actually make, to put on my armor was long, and Grievous had much more room to play with on his own body. That versatility, combined with a ruthless tactical cunning, a honed warrior's instinct, utterly no morals whatsoever, and being trained in the lightsaber arts by Dooku, would see him kill a lot of Jedi before the war's end.

In a rather amazing display of preflight prep speed, the _Twilight_ launched after eleven minutes and sped towards the _Malevolence_. Anakin, using his typical prescient flying style, danced the small ship between the turbolaser blasts from the task group easily.

"Gunners, shift your fire to away from the bridge superstructure," ordered Admiral Yularen.

This allowed the _Twilight_ to safely dock with an airlock set halfway up that idiotic bridge tower.

" _All right, R2 has overridden and isolated the airlock controls, we're going in, we'll be in radio silence from now on."_ Obi-wan reported.

"Understood, _Twilight_ , good luck," Yularen declared. "Gunners hold your fire."

* * *

I took the opportunity to keep busy and practice my skills with sensors by commandeering one of the upper bridge workstations and throwing every active sensor the _Justicar_ had onto the _Malevolence_. Of course, the difficulty came in interpretation. We didn't have the Seperatist technical manual and blueprints for the ship, so an energy spike in a certain area or system couldn't tell you much. You could map the energy transfer conduits and quite a few other systems just by the unique elements or particles they used. Also trying to isolate the lifesigns of Obi-wan and Anakin among that mess of signatures and emissions was just flat impossible.

The trick I eventually developed was to filter the emissions until all I was seeing was the general locations for all the B1 battledroids on the ship. It was like looking at an ants nest, but I knew that the Separatists used them for other roles than just holding a gun to shoot; they were also used in damage control, maintenance and repair, so most of the droids you'd encounter on the _Malevolence_ wouldn't be able to immediately shoot you. Then it was just a matter of looking for droid signatures that would abruptly wink out in a distinct line. That would give a rough approximation of where either Anakin or Obi-wan was. The problem was that if they were being sneaky they'd avoid combat wherever possible to achieve their objectives, and that there were other reasons for droids to disappear from sensors; internal damage from the battle, or simply switching themselves off for recharge into docking stations.

The hyperdrive and the bridge were the two major targets to sabotage, so I refined the scans to only focus in those general areas.

This let me see that Grievous wasn't about to just let this happen. A large number of droids were gathering to the Hyperdrive, and I could see droid signatures sequentially wink out on the bridge itself.

I turned around about to announce what was happening to find Master Plo standing practically over my shoulder radiating amusement. "I see it, little Soka." Damn, got a bad case of tunnel vision there, and rather desperately avoided flushing in embarrassment at the nickname. "And it's not necessary to share that. The bridge crew can do nothing to influence events, they have their jobs, let them concentrate on it."

I faced the screen, "Yes, Master."

"Reach out with your feelings and the Force, you do not need machines and sensors to tell you what is happening on the _Malevolence_."

Of course, I could do that, but sometimes I found myself in two mindsets regarding the Force and its use. Yes, you could divine things that mere sensors could not, achieve feats and attain knowledge that would baffle any mundane scientist. 'Trust the Force', so to speak. Then you just had to look at what Darth Sidious did with the Shroud that occluded him and any Jedi precognition regarding him and that 'trust' quickly fell by the wayside. Using the Force as a crutch for everything was also bad in my opinion, you also had reason, a brain, talents and skills you could develop.

But Master Plo had asked so I would do.

I centered myself and allowed the river and currents of the Force to embrace my consciousness. It was a bit of a trick to at first just figure a 'direction' to go in, but that was stupid, distance and direction mattered nothing in this, so I concentrated on the distinct feeling of Obi-wan's presence in the Force, and 'stepped' forward with no doubt or hesitation.

… _Obi-wan stood on a platform within a large cavernous chamber, the machinery in the giant place made it clear that this was the stupendous Hyperdrive that could push the mass of the Malevolence into hyperspace. The platform had a number of control workstations at which B1 droids were working. He was barely within arms reach of the droids when the two large blast doors leading to the Hyperdrive chamber shot open and the machine precision sound of droids marching in unison echoed throughout._

 _Now on all the three walkways leading out, a squad of battledroids marched, supported by pairs of B2 Super battledroids, and three Droideka rolled out into view from behind the console to deploy into walker mode and energized their shields._

 _Obi-wan was trapped. Emerging from behind one squad of droids walked the large droid-like cyborg, General Grievous himself. He walked with a lope that was both mechanically awkward and elegant, thick khaki-painted armor covering his body, except the parts which need flexibility, which had dark grey joints. The only hint that there was an organic being at all in the shell, was the mask-like face where yellowed eyes with long thin pupils was gazing in malicious delight at the Jedi._

 _Grievous laughed coldly, a sound that echoed out of his sinister mask hollowly. "General Kenobi." Obi-wan turned around with a nonchalant air and equally bemused smile at the approach of the cyborg, showing no intimidation whatsoever. "Did you really think I would leave the Hyperdrive unguarded?" The cyborg idly held standard issue Separatist blaster in hand._

" _Anything is possible," Obi-wan shrugged, "you haven't exactly impressed me today."_

 _Grievous merely laughed in response. "Kill him."_

 _The droids in the room took aim, but Obi-wan was already a blur of movement with ignited lightsaber. Red bolts streamed through the room and failed to find their mark. He stopped right behind one of the Droideka's that had flanked him, using it as cover - quite a few B1s met their end by reflected shots from the shield._

 _Obi-wan pushed out with both hands, turning two droideka's in his telekinetic grip into projectiles that became battering rams that slammed into B1s and knocked them off the gangways, clearing a path. Finally he used the last one, to send it straight down Grievous throat, before jumping into a Force assisted leap that had him almost out of the chamber already. The cyborg simply caught the droideka projectile with monstrous mechanical strength. The six remaining droids and Grievious continued to pour fire after him, but any bolt that was remotely threatening was deflected and as a parting gift, Obi-wan deflected a bolt that blasted a droid to slag right next to the General._

" _That was impressive," a B1 commented idly, only for Grievous to smash its head off in an agitated growl…_

… _Anakin mowed through the droids on the Malevolence's bridge like a buzzsaw. Any shots that a droid managed to get off were either dodged, deflected or he simply timed his movement so that he would be behind the cover of a console or similar obstruction. That usually allowed him the time to use the Force to pull a droid into range for a quick slice of the lightsaber. And just like that the entire bridge was his. He took a moment to gather himself and stared at the various consoles, clearly thinking of what way he could sabotage the ship that wouldn't be immediately obvious and corrected. He headed to the Navigation console…_

… _a ship the size of the Malevolence required that its crew, humanoid or droid had to get from point A to B within it in an efficient fashion. So the designers solved this by building a tramway maglev network of multiple levels in height to run through the ship's main sections. The cargo trams running along it moved at high velocities since the droids weren't likely to complain about excessive G-forces. This was the very dangerous stage of running lightsaber battle. Obi-wan with his single blue blade deflected and evaded the powerful crushing blows from Grievous' own blue and green lightsabers._

 _Obi-wan showed his utter mastery of Soresu - the third form, keeping his lightsaber close, expending as little energy as possible. Every overwhelming blow usually only briefly met the lightsaber before it was redirected, also using the Force to send brief pulses of telekinetic waves to further aid in counteracting that mechanical strength of Grievous._

 _Like other true Masters of Soresu he was using the time to study his opponent, giving ground to Grievous. Then when the end of the speeding tram neared he simply went into a Force assisted acrobatic leap to another train, forcing Grievous to follow by also doing the same. It was a risk for the robotic general, for while he had the raw mechanical strength to imitate a lot of the physical feats of a Jedi, he didn't have the precognition of the Force. Nevertheless, the droid general made the jump successfully, only sticking the landing because of the high tensile strength claws that he used for 'feet' and the battle continued._

 _Finally it seemed that Obi-wan faltered, losing his footing when the tram switched tracks abruptly. Grievous capitalized on the moment, slamming down with both of his blades, which Obi-wan barely fended off… but now he was on his back…_

 _Grievous stepped forward laughing mockingly and raised his blades for the finishing blow…_

 _Obi-wan glanced off to the side and simply flung himself off the tram, using the spin of his momentum to bring his lightsaber slashing through the front locomotive as he fell. He tucked into a roll and landed on another tram going in the opposite direction on the lower level, using the Force to stick his landing and bleed away the sudden acceleration. He stood and gave an ironic two fingered salute at the rapidly receding form of Grievous who could only growl in frustration…_

Master Plo squeezed his hand on my shoulder and it brought me away from my Farsight. I still had work to do on keeping the awareness of what was happening around my body when I did this.

"Focus on the moment you are in first as an anchor, before you leap into the river, Ahsoka."

"Ah, I see, thank you, Master."

The sensors gave a beep of warning in front of me. The _Twilight_ detached from the _Malevolence_ and raced home and not a moment too soon.

"Sir, sensors indicate the Hyperdrive of the enemy ship is active, as are its main reactor!" the Clone Commander reported.

"All batteries open fire!"

A storm of blue turbolasers was sent streaking through space towards the enemy. Anakin had the foresight to fly a looping course back to the task group, to allow the gunners clean space to fire into. The _Malevolence_ could at this point turn and engage us in a traditional gun duel with pretty good odds of at least destroying some of the task group, but it would take more time, and Grievous had to know we would have reinforcements coming, which would be enough to finish him and his flagship off for good.

The giant ship began to turn, still eating up all the firepower from the task group.

"Sensors show the hyperdrive is powering up, they're going to jump."

I turned on the radio, "Master, please tell me you did something clever?"

" _Of course, snips_ ," Anakin's voice declared. " _This is me we're talking about. Notice how they're not firing their guns and do a plot on their trajectory."_

I brought up a navigation plot on the console and had the computer project it on a diagram of local space. The arrow that represented the main course the _Malevolence_ would head in smoothly turned until it neatly bisected with a star nearly five light years away.

The engines on the giant ship flared and it shot off into hyperspace.

"Pursuit course, the instant the _Twilight_ has docked," Admiral Yularen ordered. "I want us in orbit of that star for confirmation."

"There won't be anything left," Master Plo pointed out.

"Nothing to visual eye, yes," Yularen confirmed, "but a little known fact is that hypermatter interactions with stars causes a distinct effect and a release of exotic particles, which can be detected."

"Interesting," Master Plo commented. Yularen might as well have smashed me over the head with a proverbial bat… so the hypermatter and conditions inside the extreme gravity well, with all the high pressure, temperatures and so on… was that knowledge the genesis of a Sun Crusher resonance torpedo?!

"Its understandably not something that's common knowledge because no one is insane enough to experiment and study such phenomena. The knowledge comes from ancient Republic naval archives from even before the Rusaan Reformation," Yularen explained, and neatly explained why the man deserved to hold the title of Admiral, even in this nominally demilitarized age.

But even more critically to my mind… was Grievous dead?

* * *

Half an hour later saw the task group hovering as close as possible to the utterly unremarkable star in question, on a bearing which traced the path the Malevolence would've taken had it been able to go through it. Republic Star Destroyers didn't have any sort of scientific facilities on board, or scientists for that matter, but they did have the best military grade sensors that Republic technology could build.

Yularen was standing over the shoulders of the sensor crew and advising them on adjustments and they were even writing a slap dash patch to the scanning software on the computers, with R2 plugged into the system as well.

Finally, after nearly two hours, when reports reached us that Master Luminara's fleet had been victorious and was now guarding the medical station, for the full evacuation to proceed, the computer produced its analysis of the star.

On the bridge holo, an image the orange dwarf star in question appeared. Despite the fact that on a comparative scale, a ship even the size of Malevolence was utterly a pin prick to the size of a star - it was still something that had hit it at greater than light velocity. The holo showed a computer enhanced simulation and analysis of the visible surface features…including a distinct aura of exotic particles that was shooting out of sun that was only visible in the gamma ray end of the EM spectrum.

"It's like a throwing a stone into a pond," I murmured. "Master, what made you think this was a good idea?"

Anakin shrugged but looked troubled as he stared at the sensor readouts, "It was the closest stellar object I could find to hardcode into their navicomputer. Didn't exactly have a lot of time to think it over, and I wanted to give Grievous as little time to realize what was happening as possible."

"So hopefully, he's now barely even a couple of atoms scattered across a few light years from here," I dared say, but had probably jinxed myself anyway. If the Force wanted Grievous around, he'd stay, and it really bummed me. What did anything I do or want to change matter then? My only consolation being that I was still alive, myself and I wouldn't be here in the first place if the Force hadn't wanted me around. Damn, I was too young still for these existential questions of existence to be hitting me. I really didn't want to go Kreia on the Galaxy. "How long would he have had, worst case scenario? Let's say he realized what was happening the instant before the ship jumped…"

Anakin nodded thoughtfully, "Ship the size of the Malevolence, Class 2 Hyperdrive, hmmm, four point nine light years, that would be two minutes sixteen seconds until impact with the star… roughly."

"And Obi-wan last saw him riding the ship's tram network heading to the fore end, and given how fast he can move…"

"It depends whether there was any escape pods or a hanger bay near the front end of the ship."

"And can an escape pod survive simply leaving the hyperspace field envelope?"

"If it had good inertial dampeners, then I'd give Grievous good odds of surviving the transition to realspace," Anakin declared.

"So assuming all that, he'd be stuck floating somewhere along a nearly impossible to calculate four light year volume, between here and the medical station, sending out an encrypted Seppie distress signal."

"All this is a lot of speculation, maybe our luck will hold and he's dead," he said with a bright hopeful expression. I gave him a flat unimpressed look.

"Until he's in pieces at my feet, his organic parts DNA verified, then fed into a furnace, I'll assume the General is still alive and a factor in this war."

"That's a rather paranoid attitude, snips."

"Prudent rather," I countered. "Hope for best, plan for the worst."

"Yeah, with the way things are going in this war..." he conceded with a nod. "Alright, lets get started on those after action reports - then its back to training."

"Yes, Master."

 **A/N: Do remember the limited POV of the SI, its hard to see the ripples of choice/change spreading out, until something is reflected back. Is Grievous actually dead? That is the question. What will that mean for the future? We'll just have to see.**


End file.
